U.S. Interior Dept. postpones offshore drilling; Va. Senators respond urging no delay
In a setback for America’s move toward energy independence, the U.S. Interior Department says it will postpone the lease of areas off Virginia’s coast for oil and natural gas drilling. After Congressional and Presidential bans on offshore Atlantic drilling expired in 2008, the Interior Department scheduled the November 2011 lease of 3 million acres located 50 miles off Virginia’s coast for oil and natural gas development. The area is known as Lease Sale 220. However, now the Interior Department will delay the leasing of the area to allow time for more environmental impact studies.
Stephen Walz, director of Virginia’s Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that while he was notified of the decision by Interior Department officials, he was not given any timetable for a rescheduled lease. Reuters News Services reports that the lease could be pushed back to late 2012 or beyond.
The Interior Department’s announcement prompted an immediate response from both of Virginia’s Senators, Jim Webb and Mark Warner, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Less than a day after learning of Interior’s decision, Senators Webb and Warner sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar urging him to reverse the apparent delay and stick to the planned November 2011 lease date.
‘If accomplished with a fair and equitable formula for sharing of revenues between the federal and state government, Lease Sale 220 will attract well-paying jobs to the Commonwealth to support a range of projects,’ the senators wrote in [their] letter to Ken Salazar.”
The 3 million-acres of Lease Sale 220 are believed to contain 130 million barrels of oil and 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. However, some experts predict a much larger yield based on past instances of underestimating resource reserves by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Offshore oil and gas development will create thousands of new jobs in Virginia and could potentially generate hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue for the state. Governor McDonnell has proposed using this renevue windfall to fund desperately needed transportation improvements across the state.
