Obama's Offshore Policies Rock the Boat

Location: New York
Author: Ken Silverstein
Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2012

President Obama is saying that his administration will open up more than three-quarters of the potential offshore oil and gas resources to development, prompting friends and foes alike to accuse him of having political motives.

And while the White House has long said it would configure a comprehensive offshore energy policy, the timing could not be more conspicuous given his recent rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline. The president, though, says that he is committed to increased oil and gas production but only if it can proven safe.

“The President has made it clear that developing our domestic oil and gas resources is a significant part of this administration’s efforts to grow our economy and create jobs,” says Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

During his State of the Union address, President Obama emphasized that in the last three years, government has given access to millions of new offshore acres to oil and developers. He then said that his administration would go even further by opening up 75 percent of such resources to exploration. First up: Conducting a lease sale that includes 38 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico, announced during a campaign stop in Nevada.

Before the BP oil accident, the White House had been drawing up such plans not just to drill for oil and gas but also to build wind farms. Then the BP blowout occurred, enabling the release of 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf. The administration decided to step back, assess its policy and determine a way forward.  

While the president enacted a ban on drilling during that time, a federal judge disallowed the move. Obama’s team rewrote the rules to comply with the legal restraints, giving the moratorium a roughly 7 month life.

In the nearly two years since the spill, the White House has beefed up the existing regulations, increased the fines and added more rules meant to minimize the possibility of accidents. The laws try to ensure that companies' "blow-out preventers" and the cemented seals covering them truly do work before they start exploring.

Systematic Access

During the moratorium, 36 drilling rigs were left idled. And while the main target had been oil developers that explore at depths of 5,000 feet, natural gas drillers that produce at 1,000 feet were also impacted. Critics of the administration's policy say that its actions cost $2 billion and left as many 12,000 without jobs and all during economically difficult times.

The Institute for Energy Research is one such gadfly. For starters, it is saying that President Obama’s recent announcement to hold a new lease sale in the Gulf is required by law. It says that the declaration does not open any areas for exploration that had not already been approved before he came to office. It adds that if he was serious about increasing domestic energy sources, he would have championed the Keystone line, not kill it.

“The United States currently has leased a mere 2.2 percent of available lands on the Outer Continental Shelf,” the interest group says.

But a report issued by the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council cautions the U.S. government to give considerably thought to its policies. Multiple things went wrong before the April 2010 BP oil spill, they say, including the fact that regulators didn’t properly do their jobs.

Their analysis goes on to say that deep water drilling is one of the riskiest and most complex undertakings that explorers can attempt. Despite several ominous signs, the report says that management failed to take the necessary precautions. To effect change, it says that workers should be able to anonymously report their concerns and corporations should have to investigate those claims.

“The federal government is acting as if the BP disaster never happened,” adds Earthjustice attorney David Guest. “The Interior Department is supposed to be looking out for the public. Instead, they are pandering to drilling companies and putting Gulf Coast communities at risk.”

The nation may be reliant on oil and gas produced in the Gulf. But is also dependent on clean waters and a healthy Gulf coast. And while the Obama administration has been correct to delay and to review the nation’s offshore drilling policies, it is also right to give systematic -- but not unfettered -- access to developers. The move may be political but it’s also one that the White House has long considered.


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