Obama proposes new oil drilling off Atlantic coast while adding limits in Alaska
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Version 0 of 1. The Obama administration on Tuesday outlined a politically fraught plan for allowing oil and gas drilling offshore along parts of the Atlantic coast while imposing new restrictions on environmentally fragile waters off northern Alaska. The proposals, if finalized, could lead to the appearance of the first drilling platforms along a stretch of the continental shelf running from southern Virginia to Georgia. Any drilling would be at least a decade away and likely subject to intense political and legal battles between industry backers and environmentalists worried about the risk of oil spills. Energy companies and state officials have long supported the opening of the Atlantic region for energy exploration, but several lawmakers and environmental groups blasted the proposal, saying the region’s beaches and estuaries would be at risk. While opening the door to drilling in the East, the White House sealed off parts of northern Alaska’s coastline to oil and gas companies, including areas that had once been designated for energy development. The move immediately drew sharp rebukes from Republican lawmakers, who vowed to overturn the bans. Interior Department officials said the proposals — intended to set a course for coastal energy development into the next decade — sought to balance demands for jobs and energy development with White House commitments to protect sensitive environments, particularly in the Arctic. “This is a balanced proposal that would make available nearly 80 percent of the undiscovered technically recoverable resources, while protecting areas that are simply too special to develop,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said at a news conference to unveil the measures. The plan reflects a larger effort by the White House to sustain the recent U.S. energy boom while doubling down on policies intended to protect unique landscapes and fragile ecosystems. In addition to oil and gas leases in the Southeast, the proposal calls for expanded leases in the heavily developed Gulf of Mexico as well as in several regions of coastal Alaska. The proposal does not call for new energy leases along eastern Florida or the entire Pacific Coast — which has been off limits to drilling since a disastrous oil spill near Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1969 — but it reflects the administration’s priorities for restricting energy development in vulnerable areas near Alaska’s coastline. In recent weeks, President Obama has announced steps to expand protections for southeastern Alaska’s Bristol Bay as well as the state’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Oil industry officials attacked the plan before the details were publicly announced, accusing the Obama administration of keeping too much of the country’s oil reserves locked away. Nearly 90 percent of federally owned coastal waters are off limits for drilling. “At this early stage, it would be premature and irresponsible to leave out of the draft program any area that holds the potential for significant discoveries of oil and natural gas,” said Erik Milito, director of offshore and industry operations for the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade association for the oil and gas industry. The leasing proposals, to be finalized later this year after a public-comment period, are part of a congressionally mandated five-year plan that sets the boundaries for oil development in federal waters through 2022. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could decide to narrow, but not expand, the proposed leasing area before it is finalized. The draft plan envisions a single oil-lease sale, probably early in the next decade, that would cover a portion of the middle and southern Atlantic coast, including offshore areas of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Interior officials characterized the plan as “early-stage,” contingent on further study, and said any lease would require a 50-mile buffer to limit damage to coastal areas from a potential spill. “The areas included for possible lease sales are not set in stone but rather are offered as options for us to continue to consider,” said the bureau’s director, Abigail Hopper. The Atlantic region currently has no oil leases in federal waters. The Obama administration proposed one lease off coastal Virginia in 2010 but canceled the plan amid the political fallout over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that spring. “Virginia’s beaches should be for lovers, not oil spills,” said Sarah Bucci, campaign director for Environment Virginia, a Richmond-based group. “We’re sorely disappointed to see the president put so many beaches and coastal communities in jeopardy.” Sens. Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine, both Virginia Democrats, released a joint statement Tuesday calling the proposal a “significant step . . . that should result in the safe, responsible development of energy resources off the Virginia and mid-Atlantic coasts.” The senators said leasing should move forward only after “appropriate environmental reviews and opportunities for public hearings.” They also complained that Virginia and other Atlantic-coast states are not allowed to share revenue from offshore energy development. “We will continue to push for legislation to allow Virginia to have the same revenue-sharing system currently applied to Gulf Coast states,” their statement said. Other parts of the lease plan would allow 10 sales in the heavily developed Gulf of Mexico, including one in the eastern zone, near Florida. In Alaska, the administration’s proposal would allow one potential lease sale each in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, and another in Cook Inlet, in south-central Alaska. But portions of the two seas would be blocked from future drilling, under a directive issued by Obama under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. Jewell described the restricted areas as “an incredibly unique environment” that requires a “balanced and careful approach to development.” Those proposed restrictions drew sharp rebukes from congressional Republicans, and particularly from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who now chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Anticipating the new restrictions on offshore drilling, Murkowski described the Obama administration’s energy policy Monday as a “one, two, three kick to the gut of Alaska’s economy.” “We will not tolerate it,” she said at a joint news conference with her fellow Alaska lawmakers, Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young, both Republicans. “We will do everything we can to push back against an administration that has taken a look at Alaska and decided it’s a ‘nice little snow globe up there, and we’re going to keep it that way.’ That’s not how you treat a state.” Darryl Fears, Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson contributed to this report. |