Salazar got our letters and thanks to all who wrote.  Phyllis
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.
The current plan is in place until 2012, so legally the department has
until 2012 to redo a plan on the Outer Continental Shelf, Salazar said.
"Whether we take that long or not is something we'll decide based on the
information we collected and the analysis that's been done during this
period," he said. "I haven't yet reached a decision yet on what the next
steps are going to be."
Salazar's comments should not be over-interpreted, spokeswoman Kendra
Barkoff said. The comments were first reported by Greenwire.
"We want to ensure that we are 100 percent comfortable with where we
are," Barkoff said. "We're not going to rush into something."
Still, Salazar's remarks enraged some Republicans, who accused the
secretary of imposing a backdoor moratorium on drilling through inaction.
Waiting until 2012 means that a six-month public comment period will soon
become a three-year ban on offshore drilling, said Rep. Doc Hastings,
R-Wash., senior Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee.
"This is unacceptable and irresponsible energy policy," he said. "It will
cost American jobs, hurt our economy and increase our dependence on
foreign oil."
Shortly after taking office, Salazar ordered a review of offshore oil and
gas development, scrapping a sweeping blueprint for expanded offshore
drilling proposed in the Bush administration's final days.
Salazar didn't rule out expanded offshore drilling, but criticized "the
enormous sweep" of the Bush proposal, which envisioned energy development
from New England to Alaska, including lease sales in areas off California
and in the North Atlantic that have been off-limits for a quarter
century.
Salazar set a Sept. 21 deadline for public comment on the drilling plan
and attended four regional hearings, including sessions in Anchorage and
San Francisco, to gather information.
Parnell and other Alaska officials have pushed for drilling, saying a
responsible offshore drilling plan is vitally important to Alaska and the
nation. Parnell, who took office in July after former Gov. Sarah Palin
stepped down, said Alaska's portion of the Outer Continental Shelf
contains an estimated 27 billion barrels of oil and 130 trillion cubic
feet of natural gas.
Citing a University of Alaska study, Parnell said shelf production in
Alaska could provide an annual average of 35,000 jobs for 50 years, and
$72 billion in new payroll.
"We have a rich reserve of oil and gas and we have a nation that needs
it," Parnell said Thursday. "Alaskan jobs and the nation's energy
security are at stake. Any delay would be harmful."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Alaska's three members of Congress
agree on the need to open up the Outer Continental Shelf to more oil and
gas development.
"It's irresponsible to gripe about volatility in the international
markets and rely on imports from dangerous and unreliable regimes while
our country has tremendous oil and gas resources we are unwilling to
tap," she said.
Meanwhile, more than 400 scientists from the United States and 20 other
countries signed a strongly worded letter urging the Obama administration
to defer offshore oil and gas development in the Arctic Ocean until
research can adequately assess potential risks to fragile marine
ecosystems.
The scientists said the Bush-era proposal was made without sufficient
understanding of the environmental consequences for the Chukchi and
Beaufort seas and lacked full consultation with Alaska resident and
native groups.
 Salazar
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