Obama Opens Gulf, Alaska to Offshore Drilling

Updated: Tuesday, 08 Nov 2011, 12:26 PM MST
Published : Tuesday, 08 Nov 2011, 12:26 PM MST

(NewsCore) - The Obama administration released a five-year offshore drilling plan Tuesday that cautiously opens up more areas in the Gulf of Mexico and looks to expand oil and gas drilling in "frontier areas" off the coast of Alaska.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the US will hold 15 lease sales for the 2012-2017 period – three off Alaska's coast and 12 in the Gulf of Mexico, including two in the eastern Gulf, where the massive BP oil spill occurred last year.

"This five-year program will make available for development more than three-quarters of undiscovered oil and gas resources estimated on the OCS (Outer Continental Shelf), including frontier areas such as the Arctic, where we must proceed cautiously, safely and based on the best science available," Salazar said Tuesday.

The plan has scheduled lease sales in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas -- both part of the Arctic Ocean -- late in the five-year period to allow for further scientific study, data collection and longer term planning for the possibility of a spill.

The administration initially had indicated that it might, as many Republicans have urged, open up the Atlantic Coast and more parts of the eastern Gulf to offshore drilling.

The news that the Atlantic Ocean was excluded from the plan left some officials disappointed.

"I am hopeful that the Administration will reconsider the inclusion of Virginia in its five-year lease plan," said the state's Democratic Sen. Jim Webb in a statement.

"Oil and gas exploration within the Virginia Outer Continental Shelf -- if coupled with an equitable formula for sharing revenues between the state and federal governments -- would boost domestic energy production, while benefiting the Commonwealth's economy," he added

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