Washington (Platts)--16Mar2009

A top Senate Republican on Monday reiterated mounting GOP criticism of US
Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for slowing or reversing oil
and gas lease sales and other ambitious energy plans put in place in the final
days of the Bush administration, despite Salazar's assurances that Interior
supports increasing development.

"You say one thing, and then the actions coming out of the administration
go the other way. That gives me concern," Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
said Monday at a Platts Energy Podium in Washington.

Murkowski, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee, repeated concerns Senate colleagues expressed last week at
confirmation hearings for David Hayes, the White House nominee to be Salazar's
deputy secretary of Interior.

They criticized what they viewed as contradictions in the Obama
administration's stated policy of supporting further domestic oil and gas
exploration while canceling lease sales.

As one of his first acts as Interior Secretary, Salazar in February
tacked another six months to the comment period for a five-year offshore
drilling plan in the Outer Continental Shelf. The Bush administration proposed
the plan, with a 60-day comment period, on January 16, days before Barack
Obama was to be sworn in as president. The plan "tilted toward the usual
players," Salazar has said.

In adding another six months onto the comment period, Salazar pleased
environmentalists, but caused consternation among supporters of oil and
natural gas drilling.

"I don't begrudge anybody in the administration for reassessing, but
those aren't very positive indicators," Murkowski told reporters Monday.

Murkowski represents the second biggest oil producer in the
country, behind Texas. As top Republican in the Senate energy committee, she
is influential in efforts to draft energy legislation and a bill to address
climate change.

Since early February, Salazar has also said Interior will reexamine oil
and natural gas development plans on Colorado's Roan Plateau, and Interior
canceled leases on 77 parcels sold in a controversial oil and gas sale in Utah
last December. Salazar has said he is skeptical about oil shale development in
his home state of Colorado.

Murkowski added Monday to what has been a flood of criticism coming the
administration's way from the oil industry and Republican critics.

Former President George W. Bush and Congress removed the ban on OCS
drilling after oil prices hit $147/barrel last summer.

Salazar has said the Obama administration wants to reassess policy
decisions made in December and January, and he has has said repeatedly that
the administration does not oppose more onshore drilling if it is an
environmentally sound plan. Salazar said OCS drilling would be a part of
future plans and he expects there will be no return to a blanket moratorium.

Murkowski on Monday also pushed for using what she called "directional
drilling" in some areas of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that could extend
as much as eight miles from the western edge of ANWR and would not disturb the
coastal plain.

"Some people are thinking I'm crazy but this is truly different,"
Murkowski said. "ANWR must remain an option," but Salazar on Monday reiterated
the administration's opposition to any type of drilling in ANWR, saying that
ANWR is a "special place" and was one area that was off limits.

"The issue of directional drilling without impairing the ecological
values in ANWR is an open question," Salazar said on a conference call with
reporters Monday. "It's not something we are going to change our view on," no
matter the technology, he said. "There are special places and treasured places
we will not disturb."

--Joel Kirkland, joel_kirkland@platts.com