http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/273026-obama-pulls-atlantic-coast-drilling-plan By Timothy Cama - 03/15/16 09:53 AM EDT
President Obama is rescinding his proposal to open the Atlantic coast to offshore drilling after encountering strong opposition.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell confirmed Obama’s decision Tuesday morning, tweeting that the next five-year leasing plan for offshore oil and natural gas drilling “protects the Atlantic for future generations.”
It’s a reversal of Obama’s last proposal to govern offshore drilling from 2017 to 2022, in which he floated the idea of having a single lease sale on the outer continental shelf in an area stretching from Virginia to Georgia in 2021.
Jewell said that further details of the five-year plan will come later Tuesday. It remains to be seen whether the administration will allow drilling in the Arctic Ocean, where it had proposed lease sales in last year’s plan.
Environmental groups and coastal cities, towns and businesses were ardently opposed to the Atlantic plan, saying that the drilling and any potential spills would be disastrous to marine life, commerce, recreation and other coastal activities.
The Defense Department also weighed in and asked officials to restrict drilling in some areas due to potential conflicts with Virginia’s large Navy activities, among other military operations.
But the oil industry pushed back and asked for extensive drilling in the Atlantic.
Erik Milito, director of upstream and industry operations at the American Petroleum Institute, told reporters Monday that Atlantic drilling is “an exploration activity that hopefully leads to the discoveries that give us our energy security and put us on a road to energy independence,” and said numerous other nations are drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Consumer Energy Alliance, an industry-backed group, blasted the Tuesday announcement and said it was “deeply disappointed.”
“By removing the entire proposed Atlantic leasing area, the administration has failed to present a serious offshore plan that will help meet our energy needs over the coming decades,” said David Holt, the group’s president.
Environmental activist group 350.org cheered the decision, but pushed officials to go further in stopping fossil fuel drilling.
“This is a tribute to people all along the Atlantic coast who did terrific work and made this a climate legacy issue for the president,” said May Boeve, the group’s executive director. “He and his successor will need to go even further to protect the Arctic, Gulf, and all other public lands and waters from fossil fuel extraction.”
