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| New Offshore Drilling to be Proposed | |
| 2007-04-28 | |
| Hey! Maybe the Dems will get on board now, since the troops are coming home soon, and the price of oil is gonna skyrocket? The Interior Department will announce a proposal Monday to allow oil and gas drilling in federal waters near Virginia that are currently off-limits and permit new exploration in Alaska's Bristol Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, according to people who have seen or been told about drafts of the plan. At least they admit some of the information is third hand - or worse. The department issued a news release yesterday that was lacking details but said that it had finished a five-year plan that will include a "major proposal for expanded oil and natural gas development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf." Department officials declined to describe the plan. Congress would still have to agree to open areas currently off-limits before any drilling could take place off Virginia's coast. Every year since 1982, after an oil spill off Santa Barbara, Calif., Congress has reaffirmed a moratorium on drilling off the nation's Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Last year, after a vigorous push by drilling advocates, Congress opened new waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Only the eeeevil oil companies want to do it, and they've bought off all the Republicans, doncha know. The Interior Department might still go ahead with environmental and geological seismic studies off Virginia, but the plan does not envision drilling there before 2011, according to a congressional source who saw an earlier version of the proposal. That way, Hillary can stop the actual drilling. The sources who described the plan spoke on the condition of anonymity because they didn't want to compromise relationships with people who showed them drafts. Environmental groups said yesterday that they were troubled by the idea of oil exploration and drilling so near the wildlife refuge on Assateague Island and in an area closely linked to the Chesapeake Bay. Some of the bay's best-known species, such as blue crabs and rockfish, migrate to the ocean. Activists said that simply looking for oil and gas could cause environmental harm if waste products used to lubricate or cool drill bits are cast overboard. Such materials are often toxic, and could threaten marine life in the area, said Richard Charter of Defenders of Wildlife. Even thinking about drilling causes little baby seals to die! Richard Ayers of the environmental group Virginia Eastern Shorekeeper said he was concerned about development along the state's lightly populated Atlantic shoreline. He said he was worried that oil drilling would create boomtowns, a new influx of people and pollution. "This is one of the few places on the East Coast that just never got developed," Ayers said. "A disturbance of any magnitude would be something the place hasn't seen since the '30s," when a hurricane hit the area.
Many drilling advocates say that the oil industry has had a good environmental record in the Gulf of Mexico and that the nation needs to develop domestic oil and gas reserves to bring down prices and reduce reliance on foreign oil. Advocates of increased drilling have campaigned in several states, many of which are attracted to the prospect of negotiating shares of federal royalties. Bills endorsing more drilling have twice passed the Virginia legislature. Kevin Hall, a spokesman for Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), said Kaine was "supportive of exploration to see what, if anything, is out there." But Hall said Kaine had received "assurances" from federal officials that the proposed exploration would not violate state law. Last year, the General Assembly and Kaine agreed on a bill to prohibit drilling within 50 miles of Virginia's shoreline. One place that doesn't need approval from Congress is the area north of the Alaska Peninsula near the Aleutian Islands, known as Bristol Bay. Home to one of the world's largest salmon runs, according to the Sierra Club, Bristol Bay was not covered by the same ban on drilling. President Bush used his executive power to lift the ban in January. Congress has 60 days to reimpose it, or else drilling preparations could start in Bristol Bay as soon as July 1. Athan Manuel, offshore drilling expert at the Sierra Club, said, "We need to do more to drill in Detroit by finding more oil efficiency in our cars and trucks rather than drilling off of some of our most sensitive coasts that are important environmentally, but also economically in driving billion-dollar fishing and tourist industries." Yeah, and get the Democratic Presidential candidates to fly commercial jets, too! And wind farms off Cape Cod! | |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #6 Though people point to Brazil's usage of ethanol, what is little reported is that it also went on a vast program of offshore drilling for oil, greatly increasing the amount produced. That doesn't fit the narrative, of course. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2007-04-28 19:38 |
| #5 Every year since 1982, after an oil spill off Santa Barbara, Calif. Natural seepage of oil off Santa Barbara has continued since then. Drilling for oil is the only way to stop this seepage. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2007-04-28 18:43 |
| #4 Get the moonbats to go out and live with the baby seals they so ardently love, one day should do it, look for a turnaround as soon as they realize the filthy, nasty "Normal" conditions that pass for normal seal life, that they kill and eat other wildlife, and love moonbats (For Dinner) Idiots. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-04-28 17:22 |
| #3 The strategic solution to fighting terrorism needs a huge percentage of effort focused on getting off the imported oil habit. Once we stop funding the Saudi/Iranian fundamentalists, which in turn dries up the Pakistani and SE Asian madrassas, then we can watch the more virulent strain of radical Islam decline. In turn, the mainstream Islamists will slowly be lured from their dangerous religion and turn into Lutherans with funny rules. Nuclear energy, domestic oil, wind, sea, geothermal, coal, fuel-cell, gerbils on a treadmill, everything needs to be harnessed to cut off importing the thing that funds these people.... |
| Posted by: JustAboutEnough 2007-04-28 17:02 |
| #2 Yes, the dirty business of oil exploration and drilling is best left to the chinese or hugo. Energy, we don't need no stinking energy! So what if our mighty infratructure comes grinding to a halt for lack of the black stuff. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-04-28 14:08 |
| #1 If a shortage of imported oil hits the US, the billion-dollar fishing industry can row itself out & back from the fishing grounds, and our tourist industry can bend over & kiss itself goodbye |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2007-04-28 14:04 |