Reply #27: Any contract due to Obama's actions weren't going to occur until 2012.

[FrenchieCat]

Those who wanted more drilling for some time, were still pissed that the Offshore Drilling land opened by Bush had been closed as soon as Obama took office.

This is how most who support drilling saw his proposal (guess they don't care for him much!):


Summer 2008: the Democrat-controlled Congress and President George W. Bush retired both the congressional and executive bans on offshore oil and natural-gas production, which effectively opened nearly the entire Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for responsible energy production.

March 2010: Brother O announced that he, for the first time, is opening new lands in the OCS for energy exploration.

Brother O did not open anything; almost all of the OCS was already open for nearly two years. In fact, he locked up the entire West Coast, the North Atlantic, and portions of Alaska— areas that hold a resources potential of up to 77 billion barrels of oil—more oil than the entire Russian reserve and three times as much as the current U.S. recoverable reserves.

In addition, he also delayed a scheduled lease sale off the Virginia OCS from 2011 to 2012.
http://imkane.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/obama-didnt-open-new-lands-for-energy-production-he-closed-them/

“Obama’s False Promise on Offshore Drilling”
Steve Everly, American Solutions:


More than a year into his presidency and after imposing numerous delays on American energy production, President Obama announced today that he would open up portions of the Outer Continental Shelf to offshore drilling.

But the plan is defined more by what it restricts than what it opens up. The Obama administration chose to take off the table large portions of the OCS in an announcement that was supposed to be about expanding American energy.

The announcement signifies:

* No drilling in the Pacific Ocean.
* No drilling in a large portion of the Atlantic Ocean.
* No drilling in some of the most promising areas of the Gulf of Mexico.
* No drilling in much of Alaska.

While opening up any portion of the OCS for responsible energy development appears to be a great step forward, the truth is that none of this has been finalized, and most new drilling will not occur until after 2012 at the earliest.

The offering also comes with a hefty price: President Obama wants to force Americans to swallow a massive new energy tax before any state will reap the benefits from this new offshore drilling. The bill Mr. Obama urged Congress to pass last summer, the Waxman-Markey energy tax, would eviscerate the economy, killing more than one million jobs per year while raising the cost of energy for all Americans.

If an energy tax passes Congress this year, the negative impact on the economy will happen long before the first oil comes from these new offshore leases.

In addition, the multitude of steps to be taken before any of these lease sales are made after 2012 are still a work in progress. Each offshore tract that the administration proposes will no doubt fall victim to an array of court challenges and bureaucratic hangups, each of which will push back new offshore drilling even further.

Instead of following the will of the people and moving forward immediately with offshore drilling, the President is asking us to trust him to proceed in the future, kicking the can of energy independence years down the road. Recall that during the 2008 campaign then-Senator Obama affirmed his support for offshore drilling, only to take office and implement a series of delays and roadblocks to responsible oil and gas development.

According to a study by the American Energy Alliance, offshore drilling has the potential to create millions of new American jobs and could provide more than $2 trillion in new government revenue at the local, state, and federal level.

By delaying offshore drilling for at least another two years, the President’s decision does nothing to allow us to begin reaping those benefits. Mr. Obama’s insistence on imposing a new tax on American energy also hamstrings any future job creation or new drilling revenues.
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=17617