The Obama administration’s new five-year drilling plan kowtows to extreme environmental interests while going against the will of voters, the head of the oil and gas industry’s largest trade group said on Tuesday.
“The decision appeases extremists who seek to stop oil and natural gas production which would increase the cost of energy for American consumers and close the door for years to creating new jobs, new investments and boosting energy security,” said Jack Gerard, the American Petroleum Institute’s CEO.
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The Interior Department released its latest five-year offshore drilling plan on Tuesday, removing a large swath of federal leases to drill for the first time down the coast from New Jersey to Georgia. An earlier proposal had the Atlantic coast playing a key part in the plan, but in the end the administration gave it a thumbs down due to environmental risks.
“This is not how you harness America’s economic and diplomatic potential,” said Gerard. He said the “inconsistent policy leads to unraveling the nation’s ability to be a global energy leader and has left the future of American energy and national security vulnerable for the geopolitical challenges that lie ahead.”
Gerard says the decision will stunt the development of offshore oil and gas resources for generations to come. “This also wipes out an opportunity to create scores of additional new jobs for Americans along the Atlantic coast and nationwide, while also erasing millions more in revenue to the government,” he said. “Expanding offshore development is a key part of that equation.”
Gerard suggested the decision could turn off voters from supporting presidential candidates who oppose new opportunities to drill on the Eastern coast of the United States.
Gerard’s group pointed out that surveys conducted by the Harris Poll, between Jan. 22-Feb. 1, showed Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina voters had “strong, broad support for domestic oil and natural gas production, including offshore, as a means to stimulate the economy, create jobs, increase U.S. energy security and provide additional government revenues.”
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, echoed many of Gerard’s same thoughts in the wake of the decision.
“Today, the president chose to polish his reputation with far left special interests over the well-being of offshore workers, would-be entrepreneurs, and every American who will be deprived access to new, affordable energy sources,” he said. “This decision is a lose-lose for the people of this nation.”
He was especially concerned with the decision on the Atlantic drilling leases. “The termination of Atlantic development drives jobs, revenue and security away from coastal states like Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and into the hands of Iran and OPEC,” he said.
“The idea that these policies are intended ‘to protect’ is the deceit of this administration,” Bishop added. “Obama continues to do his very best to suffocate responsible energy development and erase all strides we’ve made over the last decade.”
Nevertheless, not all environmental advocates were supportive of the five-year plan. The Wilderness Society says the plan opens up new areas of the Arctic to offshore drilling, which is not in keeping with the president’s commitments to face down climate change.
“We are disappointed that [Interior] dismissed major risks and climate change concerns, and has moved a step closer to finalizing plans for further oil and gas leasing in the Arctic Ocean,” said Lois Epstein, an Alaska-licensed engineer and the group’s Arctic program director. “This remote, fragile and rapidly warming environment is simply too important to drill.”
Other groups like billionaire activist Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate America praised the new five-year blueprint as helpful in the fight to stop global warming.
350.org, which has been coordinating with Steyer, said the president’s “decisions on offshore drilling and fossil fuel development on public lands will define his climate legacy,” according to the group’s executive director May Boeve. “Scientists are clear that in order to meet our climate targets we must keep fossil fuels in the ground.”
“Protecting the Atlantic is a major win for people all along the coast who fought hard to protect their communities and the climate, but there’s much more work to be done,” Boeve said. “We won’t rest until we end new fossil fuel development in the Arctic, Gulf, and all across this country.”
