WASHINGTON – In a reversal, the Obama administration said Wednesday it will not pursue offshore drilling off the East Coast of the U.S. and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
A senior administration official told The Associated Press that because of the BP oil spill, the Interior Department will not propose any new oil drilling in waters off the East Coast for at least the next seven years.
President Barack Obama's earlier plan — announced in March, three weeks before the April BP spill — would have authorized officials to explore potential for drilling from Delaware to central Florida, plus the northern waters of Alaska. The new plan allows potential drilling in Alaska, but officials said they will move cautiously before approving any leases.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar planned to discuss details of the decision later Wednesday. He said in a statement obtained by the AP that the BP spill taught officials a number of lessons, "most importantly that we need to proceed with caution and focus on creating a more stringent regulatory regime."
The new strategy focuses on areas with leases that are currently active in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, Salazar said. "Our revised strategy lays out a careful, responsible path for meeting our nation's energy needs while protecting our oceans and coastal communities," he said.
Obama's pre-spill embrace of more offshore drilling was widely viewed as a political ploy to secure more votes for a comprehensive global warming bill in Congress — one of the president's top domestic priorities. But that bill died last summer, and with Republicans winning control of the House and gaining in the Senate, the bill is unlikely to be revived any time soon.


AMAZING !!! I never would have thought he was using this as an Election PLOY ! LMAO !

Drill baby drill:^o

I presently do not want there to be drilling in the Gulf or anywhere else Florida's waters could be affected.

I imagine most people in Florida feel that way.... but I seriously doubt another BP style spill ever happens again.. I think the plug would have been pulled whether the spill happened or not...

😱 I bet Obama made the spill happen just so he'd have a reason to back out.....

Too bad...China and Russia will.

:-k true.. true....

We can't drill for oil. We are saving that oil to pay China back with.

Kind of like a savings account?

Translation: George Soros must have changed his mind.

The Kenyan King is a job killer!!!![-x

Soros bought oil while the price was falling due to the possibility of new drilling.

Now the price will rise and then he sells. That is how he has made his money over the years....unfairly influencing market factors while skirting the law.

😟 at least we still have Alaska to drill....

Oil...that's sooooo 20th century.

^ yeah.

We won't need much when obummers done wrecking things and remaking the USA in the vision of his marxist father.

Mass transit.

Try to spend an entire day without using it or a byproduct of it.

I am trying DMV. So are lots of people. But still a few are clinging to it (along with their guns and religion). A hundred years ago, some folks were still using frozen blocks of ice to chill their food. Where will you be in 5 years? Evolution is so exciting.

Right here. Using the same screenname in an unbanned manner!

😕


😂