Administration Proposes Expanded Energy Drilling

[YankeyMCC]

Source: NY Times

(snip)
WASHINGTON, April 30 — The Bush administration proposed on Monday leasing out millions of acres along the coasts of Alaska and Virginia to oil and gas drillers, a move that would end a longstanding ban on drilling in those environmentally sensitive areas.

Both areas have been closed to new drilling for many years. The areas off Virginia are still covered by laws that prohibit new drilling in all areas along the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. But Congress lifted the prohibition on Bristol Bay off Alaska in 2003, and President Bush lifted an executive order in January that had blocked drilling there through 2012.
(snip)

(snip)
Both proposals are part of a broader five-year plan to open up 48 million acres along the outer continental shelf to oil and gas drilling. Unless Congress objects within 60 days, most of the five-year plan will go into effect, though resistance has been voiced. Starting this year, the Interior Department plans to offer leases on about 8.3 million acres in the central region of the Gulf of Mexico, which Congress specifically approved for offshore drilling late last year.

But the department hopes to open up far more than that. It would offer leases on 37 million acres off Alaska, starting as early as 2008, in vast new areas in the Beaufort Sea, the Chukchi Sea and the Cook Inlet. None of those areas have been subject to a drilling ban, but none have been tapped before.
(snip)



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/washington/01drill.html?ex=1335672000&en=3afbe991f528c778&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

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Just yesterday I read about the unexplained and alarming decrease on Beluga Whale populations in Cook's Inlet. Somehow I don't think this will help.

It never ends folks, we need constant vigilance and effort to protect the ecology we all (humans and animals alike) depend on for life and happiness.

[liberal N proud]

1. Destroy the last few pristine beaches for GREED!

Wouldn't it make sense to invest in a more sustainable/renewable resource?

[Lerkfish]

2. yup, THIS is the entire reason for lying about global warming: to push ahead despoiling Alaska

believe it.

[whistle]

3. What a great solution that is

:wtf:

[NickB79]

4. No amount of drilling will get us out of our energy crisis

The US peaked in oil production in October of 1970. Since then, we've produced less and less oil every year. The addition of the North Slope didn't stop the decline, and neither did the addition of Gulf of Mexico wells. Neither could stop the collapse of the continental fields. The few untapped fields in Alaska and offshore are pipsqueaks compared to the giant fields of Texas (which are now mostly depleted). Drilling in these last remaining areas is an act of desperation, grasping at crumbs now that the pantry is almost bare.

I'm afraid the culture shock this country is going to face in the next decade will not be pretty. When you tell people the American dream is dead, they react very badly. We're going to have to enact near-draconian conservation rules just to keep the lights on and food on the table.