Obama will open large sections of Southeast and Alaskan coasts to offshore drilling
Shorely it’s not so
Obama will open large sections of Southeast and Alaskan coasts to offshore drilling 23
Updated
President Obama will open large swaths of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Alaskan coasts to offshore oil and natural gas drilling in a stunning concession to fossil-fuel companies, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and others are reporting.
On Wednesday morning Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced an end to a longstanding moratorium on oil drilling along the East Coast from Delaware to the central coast of Florida.
The Arctic Ocean north of Alaska will be opened too, while the Bristol Bay in southwestern Alaska would be protected—the sole new protection. New areas of the southeast Gulf Coast would also be opened, despite bipartisan opposition from political leaders in Florida and Alabama. The Times has a map of all of this, and you need to see it to comprehend the size of the affected area.
The “Peak Oil” concept — that the world’s petroleum-production rate will soon reach its maximum and commence an inevitable decline, with negative economic consequences — has been around in scientifically articulated form at least since 1998; long enough to see it confirmed in significant ways.
Oddly, many of these states are in the Northeast of the US, where political leaders are wary of raising energy costs. Consumers there pay among the highest electricity rates in the nation, and policymakers are on the lookout for ways to lower costs.
