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Posted in Alabama Maritime News,BP British Petroleum,Deepwater Horizon,Environment,Florida Maritime News,Government,Gulf Coast,Louisiana Maritime News,Maritime Law,Mississippi Maritime News,World Maritime News on December 3, 2010
The Interior Department said it is reversing the plan laid out last March to drill for oil off the East Coast and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The Obama administration unveiled the plan before the BP oil spill. The new plan means no new drilling proposals off of the East Coast for at least seven years.
on Wednesday, December 1, President Obama reversed a decision he made back in March to expand offshore oil exploration to the Atlantic Ocean and eastern Gulf of Mexico. He did allow deepwater drilling to continue in the part of the Gulf that was hit by the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill disaster.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that the move would ban drilling until beyond 2017 oil and gas exploration in areas where there is currently no drilling activity, such as the eastern Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida, and the mid- and southern Atlantic Ocean.
The reversal was made “in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill” which brought with it a stricter regulatory regime and tougher safety rules for offshore drilling, Salazar said.
“As a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we learned a number of lessons,” Mr. Salazar said in an afternoon briefing, “most importantly that we need to proceed with caution and focus on creating a more stringent regulatory regime.”
The expansion of offshore drilling announced in March only partly opened those waters; but it still would have made available enough oil to fuel more than 2.4 million cars and gas to heat 8 million households for 60 years.
The administration imposed a moratorium in May on all deepwater offshore drilling while the new safety procedures were drawn up. Mr. Salazar lifted the ban in October, and oil companies have been seeking new permits to resume exploration in the gulf.
Sources:
NY Times
Yahoo News