The Obama Moratorium: No offshore drilling while he’s in office

Washington Examiner ^ | 03/10/10 1:19 PM EST | Barbara Hollingsworth

[Former Military Chick]

The Obama administration’s six-month delay in approving new offshore drilling leases in federal waters will become a new three-year ban, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar quietly told reporters last Friday. Which means that no new oil and gas leases will be approved during President Obama’s term even though two –thirds of the American public supports such activity, according to a December 2009 Rasmussen poll.

Sixty percent also believe that gas and oil prices will drop if the government allows offshore drilling, opening up an estimate 14 billion barrels of oil and 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas

On July 14, 2008 President George W. Bush lifted an executive ban on Outer Continental Shelf leasing. On October 1, 2008, in a bipartisan agreement, Congress lifted another longstanding ban on new oil and gas leasing in the OCS.

Drilling was supposed to begin this July. But Salazar said he intends to discard the 2010-2015 lease plan developed by the Bush administration in favor of a new plan that won’t even go into effect until 2012.

“Secretary Salazar has finally confirmed what had long been feared – that the Obama Administration has no intention of opening up new areas for offshore drilling during his four-years in office,” said Rep. Doc Hastings, the ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee.

So for the next three years and probably more, trillions of dollars in domestic energy assets will remain untouched while billions of dollars more are spent on foreign oil.

[x]

"Offshore drilling" had a different meaning during the Clinton years ...

[upstanding]

I was about to post the same thing. This is a completely b.s. move by the ruling bolshies and like everything else they've done, is meant to provoke and hurt Americans.

Sic semper tyrannis.

[Track9]

Sheesh.. and I was so hoping to fish those off-shore rigs for the tuna and albacore. But I guess fishing is going to illegal too.

[Reo]

"...the Obama Administration has no intention of opening up new areas for offshore drilling during his four-years in office,”

Except off Brazil, where we're actually sending them the money to do it! How stupid is that???!!!

[chiefqc]

While it is not a plesent thought, it’s a surprise that he is still standing upright and breathing.

[Track9]

Can you imagine the kind of personal security Zero will need after he leaves office having destroyed so many people’s livelihoods.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Salazar is an Obama-asskisser par excellance. And stupid too.

Time that the oil industry got on his case, big time.

[Candor7]

Obama likely already has a dictator style safe house/estate somewhere in Africa.

Obama has the support of people like Robert Mugabe and their dictator's network of national socialism based on Rev. Wright style black supremacist racial superiority.

And the people of America elected this thing into office? The suffering Obama will ceate has only just begun.

[upstanding]

Sheesh.. and I was so hoping to fish those off-shore rigs for the tuna and albacore. But I guess fishing is going to illegal too.

Good timing... Fishermen’s fear: Public's right to fish shifting under Obama?

[noiseman]

I think Zero should demonstrate his opposition to offshore drilling by chaining himself to a rig, preferably barely above the waterline and at low tide.

[Cobra64]

Something Democrats will never understand - Cause and Effect:

[Gabrial]

“No offshore drilling while he’s in office.”

I guess Tiger Woods won’t be taking his boat out any time soon.

[PreciousLiberty]

“this is just one more issue the public would be angry about”

It needs to be repeatedly shouted from the rooftops (and Internet!), since the SCM will doubtless ignore it.

People ARE angry about 0, that’s why his Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index is at -21. November, it is a comin’!

[Elsiejay]

I have no doubt this area will be included in the National Monuments that Kenyan-born Barack Hussein Obama will be announcing soon.

[Nachum]

The list, ping

[pctech]

Unbelievable. Our gas prices are skyrocketing and this putz will bow to his muslim masters in the Middle East and block the oil drilling. Anyone else think we can go another 3 years with this traitor in the White House?

We have to drill NOW!

[Vaquero]

“Offshore drilling” had a different meaning during the Clinton years ...

and also with Gary Hart on the yacht monkey business ....

[backhoe]

I keep telling you all what it really is...

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, he's just trying to save the fisheries. Oh, wait...

• Fishermen's fear: Public's right to fish shifting under Obama?

[Nepeta]

Doesn’t he realize what this will do to the cost of production and transport to market of arugula?