090131: Bush Releases Plan for New Offshore Drilling

(CQ Politics) -- The Interior Department released a draft five-year plan for offshore oil drilling on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in one of a flurry of last-minute moves the White House has made to expand oil production and repeal environmental regulations before President Bush leaves office.

In this case, Congress acted first and the Bush administration is following up. Back in October, lawmakers allowed a 26-year moratorium on drilling off both coasts to expire in the face of voter outrage over record gasoline prices.

The draft five-year plan released by the Minerals Management Service recommends 31 offshore areas for drilling lease sales, and outlines a schedule for conducting geologic and environmental impact studies in those areas. The incoming Obama administration, however, is under no obligation to follow the plan.

In any case, it could be several more years after the five-year schedule before any sites started producing oil and gas. Infrastructure would have to be constructed and companies would have to clear other regulatory hurdles.

"The people at MMS have done all that we reasonably can do to develop the future of our nation's energy needs," said Randal Luthi, the agency's outgoing director. "This becomes the starting point for the next administration. The new era has arrived."

Lease sales in the new drilling areas could not occur until 2011. Under the plan released Friday, some of the recommended leases sales are in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which is still under a separate drilling moratorium. Florida lawmakers generally are against lifting that moratorium.

Although many congressional Democrats opposed ending the moratorium for the East and West coasts, President-elect Barack Obama and Democratic leaders have indicated that they will not try to reinstate it.

Obama has said he supports limited new offshore drilling, but it plays little part in his long-term energy plan, which is centered on dramatically boosting production of renewable electricity and reducing consumption of fossil fuels.

In the House, Natural Resources Chairman Nick J. Rahall II, D-W.Va., already has indicated that his panel will try to write environmental restrictions and guidelines on new areas opened to offshore drilling.

The oil industry celebrated release of the plan.

"American consumers have been demanding access to the oil and natural gas located off our coasts and the draft proposed five-year plan, with its inclusion of areas that had been off-limits for more than 20 years, is a good step in the right direction," said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute.

The drilling moratorium had been renewed annually in the Interior Department's spending bill since fiscal 1982. But Congress allowed it to lapse under the stopgap spending law (PL 110-329) that will fund the government until March.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he has "great confidence" that Ken Salazar, Obama's pick for Interior secretary, "will find the right balance between meeting our energy needs, which will involve increased oil and gas production over the medium term, and protecting our coastlines and coastal waters."

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