On Tuesday, 182 members of the House of Representatives sent a bipartisan letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar calling for new access to offshore energy production. Here are the details.
* The letter was written in response to the Obama administration's draft five-year plan for oil production in the outer continental shelf. The proposed plan was released in November and lays out the intentions of the Department of the Interior for offshore production in 2012 to 2017. The congressional members who signed the letter expressed disappointment the plan has no new areas of the Outer Continental Shelf -- such as offshore Virginia -- available for assessment, exploration and development.
* According to a previous news release from the House of Representatives' Natural Resources Committee, a bipartisan agreement was reached in 2008 that lifted a decades-long ban on new offshore drilling. As part of the agreement, committee chairman Doc Hastings stated in November new areas off the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic coasts would be open.
* The letter asks Salazar consider the view that waiting until at least 2017 to initiate activities in other areas of the Outer Continental Shelf does not serve the nation's interest in that the public is strongly supportive of American energy resources and the economic benefits they provide.
* According to Salazar, the Proposed Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017 "makes more than 75 percent of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources estimated in federal offshore areas available for exploration and development." The plan schedules 15 potential lease sales in the five year period, including 12 in the Gulf of Mexico and three off the coast of Alaska. The plan includes "frontier areas such as the Arctic," Salazar states, "where we must proceed cautiously, safely and based on best science available."
* Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Tommy P. Beaudreau stated with the plan's release that safety and the lessons learned from Deepwater Horizon created a further focus on responsible development of the U.S. offshore resources and reforms that have been implemented to make offshore drilling safer and more environmentally sound. Beaudreau said the majority of the proposed plan focuses on leases in the Gulf of Mexico because that is where there is the most resource potential and interest. It's also where the infrastructure is the most mature, he said.
* The proposed 2012-1217 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program can be seen at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's website.
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