The Obama administration on Tuesday outlined a politically fraught plan for allowing oil and gas drilling in U.S. coastal waters, announcing steps to open parts of the southeastern U.S. coastline for oil leasing while imposing new restrictions on environmentally fragile waters off Alaska’s North Slope.
The proposals, intended to set a course for coastal energy development into the next decade, sought to strike a balance between soaring demand for energy production and White House priorities to protect sensitive environments, particularly in the Arctic. But the plans also set the stage for new clashes with Republican lawmakers over U.S. energy policies, while also drawing warnings from environmentalists about the increased risk of coastal oil spills.
The draft plans could potentially lead to the appearance of drilling platforms off the Atlantic coast from Virginia to Georgia, in a region where state governments have traditionally backed expanded oil development offshore. But the administration also sought to block access to some oil-rich areas of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off Alaska’s North Slope to protect what White House officials described as a pristine and particularly fragile Arctic ecosystem.
The new proposal, coming just two days after the president announced he would propose designating most of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, represents a concerted push by the White House to reframe the debate over domestic energy exploration and establish future ground rules for the Arctic. In June the United States will take over as chair of the Arctic Council, an international body that coordinates policy for the nations whose borders define the region, and the administration plans to use the post to push for greater environmental action there.
The unprecedented decision to take Arctic areas previously open to drilling off the table could have implications beyond Alaska, potentially affecting future leasing decisions in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.
“This is a balanced proposal that would make available nearly 80 percent of the undiscovered technically recoverable resources, while protecting areas that are simply too special to develop,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said at a news conference called to unveil the plan.
The leasing proposals, to be finalized later this year after a public comment period, are part of congressionally¬mandated five-year plan that sets the boundaries for oil development in federal waters through the year 2022. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could decide to narrow–but not expand–the proposed leasing area before it is finalized.
