Interior Secretary heads for hot seat
thehill.com.
State of Play: Pressure to expand U.S. oil drilling, fueled by Libyan unrest and surging oil prices, is about to fall squarely – and publicly – on the shoulders of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
He will appear on Capitol Hill next week for the first time since the unrest in North Africa and the Middle East began and sent oil prices to their highest levels in more than two years.
Salazar will testify next Thursday before the House Natural Resources Committee, which is headed by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), who has emerged as a chief critic of Interior Department drilling policies.
Salazar will be ostensibly testifying about Interior’s fiscal year 2012 budget plan. But the session will give Hastings and other critics a chance to confront Salazar about the lack of new deepwater drilling permits – and the slowdown in shallow-water projects – since the BP oil spill.
Hastings and other critics – who also want more areas made available for leasing – in recent days have pointed to the Libyan turmoil to make their case.
Salazar will appear before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday, where he’ll face similar questions, including likely inquiries from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on permitting for projects off Alaska’s coast that she called vital to her state’s economic future Thursday.
Salazar, for his part, told reporters in Washington Thursday that deepwater issues remain a focus, noting he was en route to Houston for meetings with companies that are developing enhanced systems to contain runaway wells – a capability that Interior is making a prerequisite for resuming deepwater permitting.
The CEO of one of the companies – Helix Energy Solutions Group – said the company is working with a wide swath of companies involved in Gulf of Mexico oil-and-gas development.
"They [Interior] have asked for a briefing on the capabilities and readiness of some of the key Helix technology that was deployed to cap the Macando well this summer,” said CEO Owen Kratz in a statement Thursday that also confirmed the planned Friday meeting with Salazar.
He added:
“Obviously, we are all ready, willing and able to get back to work in the Gulf. As one of the leading well-intervention companies in the world, Helix stands ready to do all we can to make sure a workable and effective containment system is made widely available. We look forward to briefing the Secretary on the capabilities of the system and the speed with which it can be deployed in the event it is needed.”
But environmental groups have begun seeking to counter the growing chorus of GOP lawmakers who say the Libyan crisis and high prices makes the case for faster permitting and wider development.
Environment America's Alex Wall, in a statement Thursday, said “the real solution to our oil crisis is to move America away from oil through a set of transportation policies that will make our vehicles more efficient, invest in new technologies like electric vehicles, and provide Americans with clean alternatives like public transportation.” |
