Phil Ammann
For the first time in decades, the U.S. Atlantic coast will open to oil drilling – with the notable exception of Florida.
On Tuesday, the Obama administration expects to open the Atlantic Ocean for new oil exploration, reports Sean Cockerman of McClatchy D.C.
While the Interior Department proposal includes Virginia and the Carolinas, the maps seem to exclude drilling off the coasts of Florida, Maryland and Delaware. Final details will be made available Tuesday afternoon.
Although the controversial proposal does not require congressional approval, environmental groups will almost certainly bring legal action, said Charles Ebinger, a senior Brookings Institution Fellow for the Energy Security and Climate Initiative.
“It will be a battle royale,” Ebinber told McClatchy.
Other exclusions, such as in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off the Alaskan Arctic coast, will also have the oil and gas industry up in arms. After years of pushing the petroleum industry to open the Atlantic Ocean for exploration, few are sure of exactly how much oil and gas will be found.
According to federal government estimations, Cockerman writes, as much as 3.3 billion barrels of oil and 31.28 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are in the Atlantic seabed – not quite enough for an actual oil boom. That is nine times smaller than the assessments for the Alaskan Arctic coast.
However, those figures are from reports dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, widely considered too low by industry experts. That data came from technologies that are now “obsolete” says the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
The White House recently approved seismic testing for a better idea of the amount of oil and gas that lie under the Atlantic Ocean.
Governors in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia have welcomed offshore drilling, but the practice remains contentious elsewhere, particularly in coastal communities in states like Florida, where the economy is largely tourism-based.
