Posted on 03/07/2017 12:32:55 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The Department of the Interior will include “all available” federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico that have not already been leased out for offshore oil drilling.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced Monday 73 million acres off the coast of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida would be offered at a lease sale in August as part of the Interior Department’s five-year leasing plan.
“Opening more federal lands and waters to oil and gas drilling is a pillar of President Trump’s plan to make the United States energy independent,” Zinke said in a statement.
Interior finalized its current five-year offshore leasing program in January, just before Trump took office. The current plan includes 11 potential lease sales — 10 in the Gulf of Mexico and one in Alaska’s Cook Inlet.
The Obama administration, however, did not include any lease sales in most of the Arctic Ocean and all of the Atlantic Ocean. The administration initially considered offshore drilling in those areas, but decided not to on the urging of environment groups.
For now, it seems like the Trump administration will stick with current policies. that could possibly change one Secretary Zinke gets all his appointees in place. The Senate confirmed Zinke last week, and it’s unclear when they will hold confirmation hearings for other high-level Interior positions.
“The Gulf is a vital part of that strategy to spur economic opportunities for industry, states, and local communities, to create jobs and home-grown energy and to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” Zinke said.
Zinke’s announcement came the same day as President Donald Trump congratulated ExxonMobil on its $20 billion investments in Gulf Coast states to boost its petrochemical refining operations. Exxon started making big investments in the region in 2013 and continue until 2022.
Exxon says its investment is creating more than 45,000 construction and manufacturing jobs with salaries ranging from $75,000 to $125,000. Exxon CEO Darren Woods said Trump’s agenda of deregulation “enhanced” his company’s investments.
Shortly before leaving office, former President Barack Obama locked up even more offshore areas from drilling, issuing an executive order in December making 31 canyons in the Atlantic off limits to drilling. The order took 3.8 million acres of the Atlantic ocean out of play for drillers.
In that same order, Obama designated “the vast majority of U.S. waters in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas as indefinitely off limits to offshore oil and gas leasing.”
Environmentalists supported keeping Arctic and Atlantic waters off limits to drilling. Activists say it’s necessary to protect marine life and slow global warming.
Trump, on the other hand, promised to boost U.S. energy production through opening more federal lands and waters for exploration and eliminating regulations. That includes rolling back Obama-era policies blocking offshore drilling.
“This is exactly the kind of investment, economic development and job creation that will help put Americans back to work,” Trump said of Exxon’s investments announced Monday.
“Many of the products that will be manufactured here in the United States by American workers will be exported to other countries, improving our balance of trade,” Trump said. “This is a true American success story. In addition, the jobs created are paying on average $100,000 per year.”
U.S. Arctic waters are estimated to hold 27 billion barrels of oil and 132 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Trump could redo the Obama administration’s five-year plan to include Arctic and Atlantic ocean lease sales, or Congress can repeal the plan using the Congressional Review Act. Trump could also undo Obama’s executive order locking up offshore areas.
Good. Now open ANWR.
...creating more than 45,000 construction and manufacturing jobs with salaries ranging from $75,000 to $125,000....
Sure beats an Obama created fast food job.
...creating more than 45,000 construction and manufacturing jobs with salaries ranging from $75,000 to $125,000....
Sure beats an Obama created fast food job.
Drill, baby, drill! MAGA!
Thanks for the information. This relates to off-shore. What about onshore? I thought there was tons of oil up there & Obama wouldn’t open it up. This was a huge issue about 10(?) years ago.
Pretty much that.
There is no law of the universe that says the US will have enough oil.
Could just stop with that sentence, but flesh it out. The US burns about 20 million barrels (a barrel is 42 gallons) per day, every day. Present rate of extraction (which some like to call oil production) is well under 10 million bpd.
Dwell on that a moment, and then go back to the sentence before it. GOM production is only a few million bpd. Shale is only a few million bpd. We burn 20. The difference we buy, with money the Fed creates by whim. Do not believe oil exporters will accept pieces of paper with ink on it much longer for civilization’s lifeblood — oil.
Russia has more surface area, more oil under it. Electric vehicles will NEVER power 350 horsepower tractors to plant food for 7 billion people. (745 watts per horsepower).
Oil is everything, and nothing is going to change that. Russia is going to win. The sooner we stop with the Putin hatred, the better.
Wonderful! And I’ll tell you Mexico will like it too. They are our natural soulmates, and even though we took away a lot of their territory in the mid 19th century, they still have a connection to that time and they have a serious connection to our culture up here.
When I go to Mexico, I see houses built by people who had clearly worked in the US on developments and are reproducing them in Mexico. This is a good thing. Trump has go to promote this, because what people really want is prosperity.
A good start. More oil US leases everywhere! Yes, crude oil will be cheaper. And yes, it will hurt the oil cartels. But US companies will be able to sell their oil in more places and more of it. It will bring jobs, wealth, and cheaper gas long=term. It may affect fracking if crude oil becomes easier to obtain trough conventional wells, but it won’t matter.
Not only am I not tired of winning, I want to run up the score
Donald, you magnificent bastard!
With you all the way on that sentiment. Bored with winning? Nevah!
“No, but I’m getting close to the limit. One more day and I will be done. I will tell President Trump to cut it out, but I don’t think he will listen. He will just keep on winning whether anyone likes it or not. “
But he needs to get completely away from this GOPE Healthcare Turd that they just “laid” today.
With all these new leases, how far do you think the cost of a barrel of oil will fall from its current $52.00?
I heard Rand Paul talking about that on Infowars earlier. He had talked to Trump about the subject, and said that Trump is very interested in alternatives. Obamacare Lite is not a done deal yet.
More winning! Yesss!!
Boy, you can say that again! Wait! You just did!
The US economic miracle of the 20th Century was built at least partly on a foundation of limited government regulation and cheap energy. Trump appears to be making all the right moves to improve that foundation for the 21st Century after 8 years of undermining it by Obama.
Oh my god, where will it end.
Trump to open golf courses to oil drilling?
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