US Interior Department to Go Ahead with Offshore Drilling Plan

[galileoreloaded]

Source: Rigzone/Dow Jones

A proposal issued in the final days of the Bush administration to expand offshore drilling in previously banned areas will move forward under the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing Interior Department Spokesman Hugh Vickery.

The department has been notified by the White House that it will be able to proceed with a proposed draft of a five-year plan to lease areas in the Atlantic and Pacific waters for oil and natural gas drilling, the news agency reported Vickery as saying.

Shortly after being sworn in Tuesday, Obama ordered all federal agencies and departments to halt pending regulations until they can be reviewed by incoming staff.

Read more: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=71992

[defendandprotect]

1. Bad news . . .

[Left Coast2020]

2. TIME TO START WRITING LETTERS AND FAXES.

[NCarolinawoman]

3. Many of us in North Carolina will fight this.

[Earth_First]

4. This MUST be stopped.

This madness is not sound energy policy, and goes specifically against the pledge that Obama claimed during his inaguaral speech just four days ago!

Please take the time to call/write/fax your members of Congress.

Capital Hill Switchboard: [phone] Toll-free: [phone]

[crikkett]

5. This CAN be stopped. They're authorized to proceed with a draft, that's all. n/t

[Javaman]

6. Meh, I'm not too worried. all this is at this point is exploration...

and exploration although expensive is not nearly as expensive as the actual drilling and extraction.

with oil prices right now in the basement, the reality is this, it's way to expensive for anyone to drill and extract right now.

and if the price of oil sky rockets yet again (which it probably will this summer), there won't be enough ground work done for any "sizable" amount of oil to be extracted any time soon.

if an area is found now and tapped, full production is many years away. Probably wouldn't see the first barrel for at least 5 years and full production for 7 to 10 years.

By that time, hopefully, our energy sector will be more diversified and the demand for oil will be lower.

On top of that, even if we were to drill everywhere in US waters, it would only cover roughly 2-3% of our actual needs. And as demand goes up, that percentage will decrease proportionally.

We would be better served to institute conservation methods than go on this fools errand.