Obama to announce Offshore Drilling mainly in GOP territory!

[FrenchieCat]

You won't see offshore drilling in California, Washington or Oregon....
but Obama will be shoving off-shore drilling down Republican's big mouths in mainly GOP states.
also Palin's Alaska will get their drilling, but Obama will not allow drilling in The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Obama knows what to do here, even if I'd rather not see any of it happen...
but this actually will shut up Republicans, create jobs, take years,
get the green part of his energy proposal through the senate,
and take that issue off the table.

Many Enviromentalists won't like this.
Oil companies won't like it that much either because they wanted more.
Many who hate Obama anyways will suddendly become environmentalists cause they can.

I'm somewhat ambivalent about it only because I believe if we have a big enough
energy menu instead of relying on just one source of power, we are better off.....
and I'm certainly not close to being a "real Environmentalist" although I empathize with the long term cause in general.
--------------------------------------------------

Obama to unveil offshore drilling plans for oil, natural gas

Reporting from Washington - President Obama will announce new plans to drill for oil and natural gas off America's coasts Wednesday but will rule out drilling off California, Oregon and Washington state through 2017, administration officials say.

Obama's plans will include opening new areas of coastal Virginia and other parts of the mid-Atlantic region, Alaska and the eastern Gulf of Mexico for drilling. But officials say the president will block drilling in Alaska's Bristol Bay, where the George W. Bush administration's drilling plans in 2007 angered environmentalists.

According to administration officials, the plan would:

* Eventually open two-thirds of the eastern Gulf's oil and gas resources for drilling.

* Proceed with drilling off Virginia, provided the project clears environmental and military reviews.

* Study the viability of drilling off the mid- and southern Atlantic coasts.

* Study the viability of drilling in Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi seas -- areas hotly defended by environmentalists -- but issue no new drilling leases in either sea before 2013.
snip
The president's drilling plans run through 2017. The likely scope and details of the proposals represent compromises that risk angering energy companies and environmentalists alike.

The proposals will be open for public comment for several months, then will be finalized by the administration.
snip
The administration is pushing expanded offshore exploration as a bargaining chip in its attempts to enact sweeping legislation to curb oil imports and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy companies and conservatives have clamored for increased drilling since gasoline prices rose during the 2008 presidential campaign. Environmentalists contend that more drilling could lead to oil spills and the destruction of fragile ecosystems.

While campaigning for the White House, Obama called for increased, targeted drilling.

More....
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-drilling31-2010mar31,0,4617559.story?track=rss

[FrenchieCat]

1. Meanwhile, in multitasking......

He gives the Oil industry some "oil exploration" rights,
while slowing the the biggest polluters of all,
The Coal Industry and their Mountain top mining.



EPA proposes revoking permit for mountaintop mine

EPA proposed on Friday to "significantly restrict" or stop altogether a controverisal mountain top mining project in Logan County, West Virginia, approved for operation three years ago. *

The Spruce No. 1 mine, owned by Arch Coal, is one of the largest mountaintop mines ever proposed in Central Appalachia and posed significant risks to the environment, EPA said. The project won permit approval in 2007 but has been delayed from opening by litigation. A public comment period lasting 60 days now follows EPA's proposal, to be followed by a final decision.

EPA's decision marks the first time the agency used its veto authority under the Clean Water Act to stop a project previously approved.

The action drew a quick rebuke from the coal industry. The National Mining Association said the original permit was issued after a 13-year evaluation that included weighing the potential environmental impacts of the mine. The mine is “the most reviewed" the nation’s history, the mining group said.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/89379-epa-revokes-permit-for-mountaintop-mine

[Hekate]

2. As long as they don't drill any more off Santa Barbara and Goleta. We've got more than enough rigs

... already offshore.

Big Oil is insatiable and won't stop until the last drop of oil is wrung from the Earth -- that is, unless severely regulated. Santa Barbarians are tired of being eternally pressured by the greedy bastards, who last I heard were STILL not using double-hulled tankers to transport the stuff. Big Oil has a brazillion lawyers with far deeper pockets than our County government ever dreamed of; thank gods there is a corps of tireless environmental watchdog-activists here.

http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~jeff/sb_69oilspill/69oilspill_articles2.html

http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=Santa+Barbara+Oil+Spill+1969&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=JiGzS66LLpTsswPijYWOAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CBoQsAQwAw

Hekate

[berni_mccoy]

3. Great Analysis Frenchie! Thank you!

[NJmaverick]

4. As is the President's style he will try and strike a common sense balance

balancing the need to reduce our nation's crippling dependence on imported energy with environmental concerns. Sadly as we have seen in the pasts extremists on both sides will be unhappy and the environmentalists will try and paint the President as a puppet of big oil and the right will try and paint the President as a tree hugging liberal. As is always the case both those pictures will be wrong and the truth will be you have a pragmatic man who is using common sense rather than rigid ideological thinking to set his course.

[sandnsea]

5. They'll see how long this process takes

And that by the time they could get the first well in, we could all be in electric cars. Sensible people will choose the electric cars.

I get the politics of it and I guess it gives the left something to go into fits over. Better than having them nitpick apart the energy bill the way they did with health care.

[Cha]

6. Yeah, I don't like it.. and

will be writing to the WH about it..not trying to whip up a frenzy of hate on some internet board.

Especially with Global Climate Change and all the drastic natural catastrophies happening all around us..I would hope that money and energy could be spent developing alternative fuels for transportation.

Thank you for the information, Frenchie.. I guess this is key..

" The administration is pushing expanded offshore exploration as a bargaining chip in its attempts to enact sweeping legislation to curb oil imports and reduce greenhouse gas emissions"

In their "exploring" ..I wonder if they could tell how much oil is down there..is it even worth it?

I wish we didn't even have to have something from the Earth like that to tear it up.

[GoCubsGo]

7. I am amazed that hardly anyone has noticed that.

And, as I pointed out in one thread, all of the Southeastern states affected by this have a repug Senator up for re-election (except VA?), and three of the five have governors races. Sorry. I just can't see Jim DeMint supporting President Obama here. Especially when our state relies so heavily on tourism. And, especially since all those oil rigs would devalue any beachfront property he might own. The same goes for Rep. Joke Wilson, who represents a coastal district. The same goes for Marco Rubio and the rest of them.

[Cha]

8. I cannot see messing with the beaches..anywhere..

but, if you go to GDP and find a rational thread..I've seen that the drilling may not happen. It's exploratory.

So we'll see.

[GoCubsGo]

18. Rational thread?

Are there any? :-)

Everyone seems to miss the "exploratory" part of it. I've seen the threads that say there probably won't be any drilling due to lack of oil, too. I suspect that had a huge role in why just the southeastern coast on the mainland was opened up. I don't think the drilling is going to happen, either.

[grantcart]

9. Drill or don't drill

I find the question to be back asswards.

First we should establish the objective scientific standards that will ensure minimal or no damage in the drilling process. Once those standards are met then we should drill.

But the President's handling of the Republicans, as Frenchie noted, is hilarious. They try and put him in a box and he is like the magician who goes into the box on the stage and then appears magically in the crowd when the box is opened.

The way he is whipping those Republicans reminds me of an act I saw recently at a high end club featuring topless lesbian bondage in West LA.

[goclark]

16. That is priceless grantcart!

[Peacetrain]

10. I will be the first to admit.. this one has me perplexed..

I am waiting for the rest of the facts and story... I have been a supporter of the President for too too long, to jump up and down at the first story out.. it is always more complex than what is first reported

[Cha]

11. There's also a rational discussion

of it in GDP..in zulch's OP.

I read Frenchie's first and have found out even more since.

[Peacetrain]

12. Thanks Cha.. with so little refinery capacity in the U.S. right now..

the whole notion is kind of off setting for me. I think the last refinery was built 25 or 30 years ago, and the energy companies have been shutting the ones that do exist down, to keep profits up.. they do not like running refineries at anything less than 80% capacity.

[Cha]

13. There's reports it won't even happen..

I wrote up thread that I don't want it & will be writing the WH..not starting some frenzied hate thread on the internet.

[Born_A_Truman]

14. ...More (NYT)

"The bottom line is this: Given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy," Obama said.

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/03/31/31greenwire-obama-proposes-opening-vast-offshore-areas-to-74696.html

The plan calls for exploration in areas from Delaware to off the coastline of central Florida, while keeping the East Coast from New Jersey northward closed to oil and gas development. But actual drilling would only take place after detailed study of the regions, which could take years.

The entire West Coast, from the Canadian to Mexican borders, would be off-limits.

Bristol Bay in Alaska would be kept closed to production, but the Chukchi and Beaufort seas might be opened to drilling after extensive studies.

~~~
Lots more ...

[Cha]

15. Thanks, Born A Truman...

The more info on this the better.

[Cha]

17. Oh, and who cares what that teabagger

lovin' dylan ratigan thinks about anything to do with the President? i don't.

corporatewhore fraud.

[Name removed]

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