We support President Barack Obama’s decision to lift the 20-year moratorium on oil exploration and development on Atlantic coastal waterseven if we remain somewhat skeptical about the political motivations and timing.
The Interior Department now will be able to take the initial steps necessary to explore around 167 million acres from Virginia to Florida by conducting seismic surveys to “determine the quantity and location of potential oil and gas resources to support energy planning,” according to the White House.
Then, it will begin thorough environmental reviews and public meetings before leases are offered.
Though leases can begin to be offered for 50 miles off the coast of Virginia starting in 2012, according to the Interior Department’s leasing plans, it will probably be a number of years before any noteworthy exploration is open for business.
In fact, it is more likely that drilling wouldn’t start until 2017 or afterwards. Full-scale production that can begin to establish energy independence, then, is far off.
Even with this kind of restricted drilling, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that American consumers will see only minimal impacts on gasoline prices.
We’re less pleased by the less publicized plans by the Interior Department to cancel leases in Alaska’s Bristol Bay and reverse the decision to allow exploration in a few areas of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
The president might remember that in 2008, during the presidential campaign and with gas around $4 a gallon, it was a Democratic-controlled Congress that voted 236 to 189 to lift the moratorium on drilling, not only on the East Coast, but off the West Coast and Alaska, as well.
Just as that vote might have been a politically motivated attempt to garner support, the timing of this announcement was more likely a way to woo moderate Republicans into supporting comprehensive energy and climate change reform already in the works by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and supported by the president.
The legislation will be introduced this month.
While we strongly support efforts to diversify America’s energy supplies to include more nuclear, renewable and cleaner alternatives, we understand that to achieve these goals it is imperative that we reduce reliance on foreign sources of energy to preserve our economic strength.
In the end, opening offshore water to exploration is the right course of action — especially given the new techniques that allow for it to be done in environmentally friendly ways — to help the nation move towards energy independence.
