Salazar says he may wait on offshore drilling plan

[deminks]

Source: Associated Press

By MATTHEW DALY

Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON —

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday he's in no hurry to make a decision on whether to allow offshore drilling in federal waters off Alaska and other states, a remark that disappointed advocates of offshore drilling for oil and gas.

Salazar, who met with Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell on Thursday, told reporters he's uncertain whether the Interior Department will seek to put a new five-year drilling plan in place before the existing leasing program runs out in 2012.

The Interior Department is taking comment until Sept. 21 on a Bush administration proposal to open vast waters off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts to oil and gas drilling.

The proposed five-year plan, which would open up areas where drilling has been banned for a quarter-century, includes newly identified areas for drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off Alaska's northern coast.

While the Interior Department is considered unlikely to adopt the Bush-era proposal wholesale, it remains unclear whether the Obama administration will allow any expansion of Outer Continental Shelf drilling.

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009888796_apusoffshoredrilling2ndldwritethru.html?syndication=rss

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Some good news, for a change. We may wind up doing some drilling or not, but it won't be the wholesale drill baby drill policy of Smirk the First.

[Rozlee]

1. To begin with, not much domestic drilling winds up in the U.S.

it's exported to allow for speculation that will increase the price and add even more to it's value, esp. once Wall St. is added to the equation. Big Oil really want those oil leases, but they're not going to let us have a drop if it gets them more money on the world market. And it always does.

[Arctic Dave]

2. Until the oil companies give a real effort of trying to develop their onshore

reserves they should not be allowed anywhere offshore.