Greenwire: The U.S. Interior Department plans to wait until at least 2012 to issue any oil and gas drilling leases off the Virginia coast, meaning delays are in store for a five-year offshore plan implemented under the George W. Bush administration.
Lars Herbst, a regional director for the agency’s Minerals Management Service, announced the delay last week at an industry-only offshore drilling workshop in Texas, people in attendance told Reuters. Eileen Angelico, a spokeswoman for the Minerals Management Service, confirmed Herbst’s remarks and said more time will be needed to examine what environmental impact offshore drilling would have.
The Bush administration’s offshore plan called for the lease in November 2011 of 3 million acres about 50 miles from the Virginia shoreline.
“[Officials are] still analyzing whether they’re going to be able to hold the lease sale then or not,” Angelico said.
Newly elected Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) wrote a letter in December to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar urging him not to obstruct offshore drilling projects.
The oil and gas industry has also lobbed criticism. “This just demonstrates what remains a pattern with the Salazar Interior Department. Delay, delay, delay,” said Cathy Landry, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute. “Instead of moving forward, and conducting environmental reviews so the sale could occur in 2011, Salazar stalled” (Tom Doggett, Reuters, Jan. 26). – GN