WASHINGTON, D.C., Mar 8 - After more than a year of delays, Secretary of the Interior quietly
announced last week that the Obama Administration will discard the 2010-2015 lease plan for new development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and wait until 2012 to put a new plan in the place. This means that the Administration’s initial six-month delay has turned into a three-year moratorium on new offshore drilling. Even if a new lease plan is implemented by July of 2012, no new lease sales will occur during President Obama’s term in office. It will also mark 45 months since Congress first lifted the moratorium.
“Secretary Salazar has finally confirmed what had long been feared – that the Obama Administration has no intention of opening up new areas for offshore drilling during his four-years in office,”said House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings. “In 2008, in a bipartisan agreement, the decades-long ban on offshore drilling was lifted that opened 500 million additional acres for new energy production. This area contains an estimated 14 billion barrels of oil and 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The American people expected the Administration to seize this incredible opportunity, not keep the ban in place for years down the road. This is now the ‘Obama Moratorium’ on offshore drilling and the responsibility for this delay lies squarely at his feet.
“Despite public comments that favored a new leasing plan by a 2-to-1 margin, the Administration has decided to disregard the overwhelming opinion of the American people who support opening additional areas to drilling. By extending this drilling ban to 2012, the Administration is single-handedly preventing new job creation, billions in new government revenue and increased energy security.”
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