Obama Said to Bar Atlantic Coast Oil Drilling in Reversal
Source: Bloomberg
The Obama administration is set to reverse course on opening Atlantic waters to a new generation of oil and gas drilling, after a revolt by environmentalists and coastal communities that said the activity threatened marine life, fishing and tourism along the U.S. East Coast.
The proposed offshore leasing program expected to be released Tuesday walks back the administration’s initial plan to auction off drilling rights in as many as 104 million acres of the mid- and south-Atlantic in 2021, according to an Interior Department official who requested anonymity because the plan wasn’t yet public.
The decision to close the door to expansive Atlantic drilling responds to an outcry from coastal residents and opposition from the Pentagon, which concluded the activity could impede military training and naval exercises. The move also reflects current market dynamics, conflicts with other uses of the ocean and limited infrastructure in the region, according to the Interior official.
The Obama administration’s about-face is a defeat for the governors of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, who had lobbied for nearby offshore drilling they say would create jobs and new economic activity. It also is a major blow to energy companies that had eyed the U.S. Atlantic as a promising frontier, with the potential for oil discoveries and new development that could churn out crude for decades, supplementing eventual production declines on shore.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-15/obama-said-to-bar-atlantic-coast-oil-drilling-in-policy-reversal
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He who giveth, taketh away.
Gawd, this is great news!!
Though their concerns in this case were pretty much purely about security, the military these days seems, in general, to be way more clued in to climate-change and energy issues than the Republican party (granted that this is a very low bar. . 
)
They TOTALLY get it about climate change, and especially about the links between national security and climate change.. In a recent visit to Norfolk by John Kerry, the Navy brass presented it as pretty much a fact that their base would be usable in that location only until about 2050. .
Also,from what I've read, it sounds like they've been working on powering their vehicles by alternate energy sources for a while.
Now if only we could get the Navy (and oil companies, too) to quit with their insistence on experimenting with whale- and dolphin-deafening sonar exercises.
