Sen. Lisa Murkowski told the Washington Examiner the Obama administration told her it plans to release its draft five-year offshore drilling plan Tuesday.
The administration’s draft drilling plan, which would run from 2017 through 2022, is expected to allow oil and gas exploration in waters off Alaska’s coast and open the Atlantic Ocean to drilling for the first time since the 1980s.
Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she was told the plan would allow for drilling in Alaska’s Arctic waters, but that the administration might change the way drillers bid for leases in a way the oil and gas industry contends will discourage production.
When asked whether the draft plan was coming Tuesday, Interior Department spokeswoman Jessica Kershaw told the Examiner, “You can expect to see the proposed five-year plan in the coming days.”
Murkowski, chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the Interior Department’s plans might have changed since she has expressed dissatisfaction with President Obama’s announcement Sunday that he wants to close 12 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development.
“The fight is on, and we are not backing down,” Murkowski said at a Monday press conference.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the date of President Obama’s statement on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Examiner regrets the error.
