President Obama is set to announce an unprecedented expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling on the Atlantic Coast (as far north as Delaware) as well as the Florida Gulf Coast and parts of Alaska. This is a big shift to the right for the Obama administration and major reversal of the country’s energy policy.
The president is expected to make an announcement today at 11:00 AM ET. Obama will specifically lift a long-time moratorium banning oil exploration on the East Coast and will open 167 million acres for oil and gas exploration and eventually, production.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar tells Bloomberg News that oil exploration could start this summer.
The news will obviously anger Obama’s environmental base, which will point out that on the campaign trail, while his opponents rode the “drill, baby, drill” wave, he argued that expanding domestic oil and gas production would not lower energy costs (at the time a barrel was trading at triple digits).
The Obama administration have spinned the announcement as a natural extension of its “pan-energy policy.” It says that energy of dependence can’t be achieved with renewable energy alone and must include carbon-loaded energies as well nuclear. A few weeks ago the President greenlighted $8 billion in loan guarantees to support the construction of new reactors in Georgia.
Politically the move makes sense. The administration knows that opposition to cap-and-trade in Congress is deep and bipartisan. Expanding oil and gas drilling could actually help gather the votes needed to get a comprehensive climate change and energy bill WITH a cap-and-trade provision onto the president’s desk, hopefully this year.
UPDATE: American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard was obviously pleased by Obama’s speech, but urged that more areas be opened to exploration.
In a prepared statement, he said:
As we move forward, we hope that consideration can be given to other resource-rich regions, such as the Destin Dome area of the Eastern Gulf and areas off the Pacific Coast and Alaska. We also need to ensure that the permitting processes are handled in an expeditious way. The oil and natural gas industry has a proven track record of safe oil and natural gas development and the majority of the American people recognize this by supporting greater offshore development for the benefit of their communities, their states and their nation.
… and Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune was less pleased. In a statement, he said:
We’re very disappointed to see important areas like the Arctic coast and the Mid and South Atlantic stay open to oil drilling. What we need is bold, decisive steps towards clean energy, like the new clean cars regulations announced this week–not more dirty, expensive offshore drilling.
The oil industry already has access to drilling on millions of acres of America’s public lands and water. We don’t need to hand over our last protected pristine coastal areas just so oil companies can break more profit records. Drilling areas like the Arctic threatens marine life like whales and polar bears. Where there is offshore drilling, there is a constant danger of oil spills. One oil spill is all it takes to destroy a coastal tourism economy and the jobs that depend on it.
Image: iStockphoto / Map: The New York Times