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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (558243)	4/1/2010 7:35:13 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575608

What I posted IS factual. Yes, they have delayed. The prior Bush approved 5 year leasing plan would have allowed a lease sale offshore VA in 2011 as well as lease sales offshore northern Alaska (Chukchi and Beaufort seas) - see articles at: Message 26427889 ..... The administration has been weighing the pros and cons of offshore drilling since it took office and put the brakes on a Bush-era proposal that called for drilling along the East Coast and off the coast of California. ....... The Bush administration had proposed leasing the Virginia tracts to energy companies and said the government would receive bids for the leases in November 2011. However, a senior Interior official told an oil industry conference in January that drilling off Virginia's coast would definitely be delayed past the original 2011 leasing date. [ID:nN26102214] ..... Despite the rhetoric of support, this administration opposes offshore drilling. Consider the following: • Within a month of taking office, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar delayed the offshore leasing process by extending the public comment period for an additional six months. • Just days before he delayed the leasing process, Salazar also voided several existing onshore drilling leases in Utah delaying the development of American energy. • Last September Salazar announced that he could delay offshore drilling until 2012, or longer, depending on Interior's own internal analysis, which is at his discretion. • Days after the end of the public comment period, Interior promised that it would take “several weeks” to review and analyze the 530,000 comments received. That analysis was delayed, as there has been no public announcement from Interior. • Earlier this year Salazar announced a new layer of bureaucratic regulations for energy companies, which will further delay any kind of responsible energy development. • Last month Salazar announced that offshore drilling in Virginia could be delayed until at least 2012. • Senate Democrats wrote to Salazar last month that his delays on offshore drilling were preventing economic recovery and job creation in Virginia. • Through a FOIA request, American Solutions uncovered a deliberate delay within Interior regarding release of the breakdown of public comments on offshore leasing, which they have known since October were 2-1 in favor of drilling. • And just recently, the Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, told the Justice Department that it would miss its own deadline for a court-ordered environmental assessment of drilling in Alaska. Without that analysis, all further drilling will be delayed in the Bering, Beaufort, and Chukchi seas. ------------------ In fact, the Senate passed the bill in 2008 by 78 to 12, which means many Dems voted for it. All the more reason for the Obama administration to proceed expeditiously. Opening up the OCS WAS done on a bipartisan vote. The Senate didn't vote any restrictions on the west coast or east coast or anywhere .... so why is the administration unilaterally reinstating a defacto leasing ban on most of the OCS? Your bias is not allowing you to see that Obama and the Dems actually are for offshore drilling. Some Democrats are. Especially the VA ones who are rebelling against the Obama delay policy. Plenty of others too. As for Obama though .... he and his adm is placing most of the OCS Congress voted to open up off limits and delaying as long as possible. NOTE: These articles continually use misleading language about when drilling might begin. First by law Interior has to draw up a 5 year leasing plan (following the 2008 Congressional act, the Bush adm drew up a 5 yr plan for 2010-2015), then regional auctions of acreage are held, then the winning bidders draw up an exploration and development plan which has to be reviewed and approved by both the state and federal govts .... only after that is complete, can drilling actually happen. There can be lawsuits over these plans and approvals and likely will in any new area. So it takes years for all this to be done. The Bush 2010-2015 plan was thrown out: ...... The administration officially scrapped a plan by Bush's administration that would have OK'd leases off the northeastern Atlantic coast and in the Pacific waters off California, Oregon and Washington, where drilling has been banned for decades. ..... The Interior Department also canceled four pending lease sales in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of Alaska. .... chron.com Those Chukchi and Beaufort sea sales were to have taken place next year, just like the VA sale. I concur with this comment to the Houston Chronicle article - I didn't write it though: .... Only in Washington, D.C., can you ban more areas to oil and gas exploration than you open up, delay the date of your new leases and claim you’re going to increase production. .... (Disclosure - the company I work for would have been / will be a bidder on the Beaufort acreages.)