By Sean McNally, Senior Reporter
This story appears in the April 5 print edition of Transport Topics.
The Obama administration announced last week it intended to allow more drilling for oil off the U.S. coastline, but several industry and business groups said the proposal did not go far enough.
“Today we’re announcing the expansion of offshore oil and gas exploration, but in ways that balance the need to harness domestic energy resources and the need to protect America’s natural resources,” President Obama said March 31 in a speech at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
The administration plan opens up the Atlantic coast south of Delaware to drilling, as well as areas off the West coast of Florida, provided Congress lifts an existing moratorium.
Obama said he expected critics to say the proposal goes too far, but the move toward opening more areas for offshore drilling is “part of a broader strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil, to one that relies more on homegrown fuels and clean energy.”
Conversely, he said the United States has “less than 2% of the world’s oil reserves, [but] we consume more than 20% of the world’s oil . . . What that means is that drilling alone can’t come close to meeting our long-term energy needs.”
“So the answer is not drilling everywhere all the time. But the answer is not, also, for us to ignore the fact that we are going to need vital energy sources to maintain our economic growth and our security,” Obama said.
Rich Moskowitz, regulatory affairs counsel for American Trucking Associations, said that the federation “supports the expansion of offshore drilling, but we have concerns that this announcement restricts our ability to develop our resources in an environmentally friendly manner.”
Those sentiments were shared by Karen Harbert, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, who said that while it is “encouraging,” the administration’s announcement “appears to be a smaller step forward than what is needed.”
“The new plan does create the potential for new areas of exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf. But at this stage, that’s all it is — potential,” she said. “Much of what is promised is many years away, subject to more study and congressional action. What is needed today is urgent action, not analysis.”
Jay Timmons, executive vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, said in a statement that the move “is a positive step toward a lower-cost domestic energy supply and ensuring U.S. energy security and independence.”
Environmental advocates said they opposed the move.
“We’re very disappointed to see important areas like the Arctic coast and the mid- and south-Atlantic stay open to oil drilling,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune. “What we need is bold, decisive steps towards clean energy . . . not more dirty, expensive offshore drilling.”
