How in hell does the president have authority over this such that he acts like a king, saying yes or no to businesses as to what they can or cannot do? Just like he did with the Keystone pipeline.
Something is seriously screwed up here.
Anyway, screw the US voters, who elected this jackass twice.
Yes. He acts like he’s king.
But, there is a narrow sliver along the western edge of the eastern gulf that congress opened to drilling in 2006 which is called Area 181 and South 181. But, in this area, Congress stipulated that all drilling has to be more than 125 miles from Florida's coast. This area is bound on the west by the central gulf and on the east by the military mission line, so, Florida, the US Navy, and Air Force are opposed to drilling on the east side of the military mission line
Bill Clinton was the first to get Florida to agree to drilling in Area 181, but because oil prices collapsed in 1998, no leasing was done. George Bush was the first to actually auction leases in Area 181 but Congress overturned him because Bush didn't include royalty sharing in the leases.
Presidents have the authority to defer leases, but he or a subsequent prez can change it.
Obama stopped all off shore drilling after the blowout in 2010, so at the time of this article, no one knew how long it would last. It lasted about a year, but to late to make it into the 2011 fall lease auction. They have two auctions a year, spring and fall.
So, the eastern gulf was put back in the auction rotation in 2012(2012-2017 program), and the first actual lease auction for the eastern gulf was spring of 2014. The next lease auction for the eastern gulf is spring 2016.