One of the lease areas the Democrats are squawking about is called ‘Lease 181’ in the Gulf of Mexico way off the coast of the Florida panhandle. That area became available I believe in late 2006 or early 2007. And as the article states there are many permits required to even begin looking at the area from seismic to test wells. That takes time.
Also, and this is a big factor is that it’s in deep water which requires tremendous capital investment to put up a rig. Deep water offshore rigs are in short supply right now and just about impossible to obtain.
The ANWR on the other hand can be drilled quite easily with highly available land rigs and there is much more oil in the ANWR.
But ANWR is “pristine”. It’s “virgin” wilderness.
The liberals don’t have any respect for “virgin” anything else. But a “virgin” wilderness, even a frozen wasteland, must be preserved in their worldview.