Obama Kills Atlantic Offshore Drilling For Five Years

Obama Kills Atlantic Offshore Drilling For Five Years

Maybe he thinks he justified ?

But Now of all times ?

What Are his advisers thinking !!

What Will the majority of voter do ?
(especially in Virginia !)

Yesterday the Obama administration announced a delaying tactic which will put off the possibility of new offshore oil drilling on the Atlantic coast for at least five years:

The announcement by the Interior Department sets into motion what will be at least a five year environmental survey to determine whether and where oil production might occur.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell notes that a planned lease sale, which the administration cancelled last year, will now be put off until at least 2018. As you might expect, Republicans were not impressed with the decision:

"The president's actions have closed an entire new area to drilling on his watch and cheats Virginians out of thousands of jobs," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee. The announcement "continues the president's election-year political ploy of giving speeches and talking about drilling after having spent the first three years in office blocking, delaying and driving up the cost of producing energy in America," he said.

Finally, given that this is the Obama administration, you won't be surprised to learn that oil and gas exploration is not the only aim of the survey:

In addition to assessing how much oil and natural gas is in the area, seismic testing would help determine the best places for wind turbines and other renewable energy projects, locate sand and gravel for restoring eroding coastal areas, and identify cultural artifacts such as historic sunken ships.

The Post reports that environmentalists are already opposing the survey which, conveniently, won't begin until after the election.

Breitbart Article

How quickly we forget the deepwater horizon disaster.

Too bad those in charge of government and industry haven't implemented
the infrastructure to adapt to renewable energy - if they had,
we'd not be paying so much for energy right now. The technology
has been there ready to go into production as the primary sources
of energy for a decade now. It's just lacking infrastructure investment.

reply to post by xuenchen


I don't know, it's all about jobs and Obama hating until it reaches your back yards, Mr Hastings, who lives in Washington, not on a coastline.


I would let the coastal states people weigh in on this issue too. I have mixed feelings because I do appreciate both the ecosystem and job aspect. The problem lies in shortcuts and safeguard compromises. The companies want the profits but do not want to spend the money on the Swiss acoustic warning systems, nor do they wish to regulate anything via the gov because of all the red tape and costs.

The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.

The lack of the device, called an acoustic switch, could amplify concerns over the environmental impact of offshore drilling after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig last week...

... regulators in two major oil-producing countries, Norway and Brazil, in effect require them. Norway has had acoustic triggers on almost every offshore rig since 1993.

The U.S. considered requiring a remote-controlled shut-off mechanism several years ago, but drilling companies questioned its cost and effectiveness, according to the agency overseeing offshore drilling. The agency, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, says it decided the remote device wasn't needed because rigs had other back-up plans to cut off a well.

The U.K., where BP is headquartered, doesn't require the use of acoustic triggers.

online.wsj.com...

Originally posted by pirhanna
Too bad those in charge of government and industry haven't implemented
the infrastructure to adapt to renewable energy ...

Regardless of infrastructure (which largely exists "off the shelf"), it is almost impossible to scale-up "renewable energy" to a point that makes it comparable in scope to fossil-fuel power.

"Renewable" is a myth, foisted on an ignorant majority who have no idea what it takes to produce energy from any source.
The largest geothermal project in the world (the CA "Geysers") is literally running out of steam!
Where will we get the rare-earth materials for the wind or hydro or geothermal turbines? The limited supply makes the concept, by definition, NOT "renewable." Do you really think China wants us to compete with them in an over-supplied market?

How much steel and concrete will be necessary for their installation, not to mention their production and assembly? Are those "renewable?"
What about their limited productive life-spans? Do you believe that you "just set it and forget it?"

we'd not be paying so much for energy right now

Infrastructure is but one component of the cost of so-called renewable energy. What about when the sun dowesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow? The UK and Germany have already witnessed tremendous drop-off and lack of reliability in wind and solar power.
The true cost per kWh of alternative energy will not be competitive with conventional production for at least another decade or two. Do we just sit and wait for the tech to catch up?

The technology has been there ready to go into production as the primary sources
of energy for a decade now.

Nope. Show me where and how it is both "renewable" and market-competitive. It is not, and certainly was not 10 years ago. Prove what you are saying.

It's just lacking infrastructure investment.

Been there, done that, above.

jw

Don't worry, though. We won't run out of oil, since he's promised Brazil that he'll buy theirs. What with, I don't know, since we don't even have enough money to pay off the money we've borrowed.

/TOA