President Barack Obamais clamping down on federal offshore drilling initiatives, announcing today that he is canceling offshore exploration along the East Coast and delaying the lease sale for Virginia property.
Here's some detail on Obama's move from ABC News.
A senior White House official said "the president's eyes have been opened" to the risks of offshore drilling. Officials point specifically to the inability of the U.S. Minerals Management Service to reliably regulate the industry, the inaccurate claims by the oil industry that companies are able to stop catastrophes such as these from happening and whether the industry can contain the damage.Each of those assumptions have been proven false, the senior White House official told ABC News, which is why projects are being canceled or delayed.
The Virginia sale is being cancelled because of environmental concerns and concerns raised by the Defense Department, the official said. Planned exploration off the coast of Alaska in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas is also being delayed pending the review of the presidential commission looking into the BP spill.
The move makes sense in regards to the current spill in the Gulf, but it's probably not going to sit well with folks like Gov. Bob McDonnell, who remains a steadfast supporter of offshore exploration.
Sen. Mark R. Warner is holding a 2 p.m. press conference to address the ramifications in Virginia. Warner appears to agree with Obama on the delays and cancellations in light of the Gulf spill. Here's a snippet from Warner's planning release.
[Senator Warner, who has supported moving forward with the required reviews and permits for developing Virginia’s coastal wind, natural gas and oil resources, believes cancellation of the scheduled 2012 lease sale makes sense in light of the ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.]
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