[ColdWater]

exploration leases

[colorado tanker]

What point do you think you are trying to make??? Of course exploration precedes drilling, that's why Obama killed it.

The administration officially scrapped a plan by Bush's administration that would have OK'd leases off the northeastern Atlantic coast and in the Pacific waters off California, Oregon and Washington, where drilling has been banned for decades.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/6937779.html

Do you need more sources???