Obama Reimposes Offshore Drilling Ban

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Wednesday afternoon that the Obama administration will not allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as part of the next five-year drilling plan, reversing two key policy changes President Obama announced in late March.

"We are adjusting our strategy in areas where there are no active leases," Salazar told reporters in a phone call, adding that the administration has decided "not expand to new areas at this time" and instead "focus and expand our critical resources on areas that are currently active" when it comes to oil and gas drilling. WaPo

White House Response Timeline to BP Oil Spill

NIGHT OF TUESDAY, APRIL 20

Search and Rescue

The U.S. government response to the BP Oil Spill began immediately after the explosion on the night of April 20 as an emergency search-and-rescue mission. At approximately 10:30 p.m. that night, notification was received that Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) Deepwater Horizon had exploded and was on fire. The rig was located 45 miles southeast of Venice, La.

Establish Command Center to Address Potential Environmental Impacts

Concurrently, the administration also quickly establishes a command center on the Gulf Coast to address the potential environmental impact of the event and to coordinate with all state and local governments. Since this point, the administration has continuously anticipated and planned for a worst-case scenario.

NOAA Mobilizes to Provide Trajectory Support

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) mobilizes within three hours of the explosion and started to provide trajectory support and coordinated scientific weather and biological response services. The NOAA weather forecast office in Slidell, La., also provided weather information to the Coast Guard at its request shortly after the explosion to support initial search-and-rescue operations.

The President is Alerted

The President is alerted to the event and he begins actively monitoring the situation. At the time, it was known that 126 people were on the rig when the explosion occurred.

Assets Deployed To Date

Total response vessels: Two Coast Guard cutters

Total response aircraft: Four helicopters and one rescue plane

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21

Deputy Secretary of Interior David Hayes is Deployed to the Gulf Coast

The morning after the explosion, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar deployed Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes to the Gulf Coast to assist with coordination and response to the event, and provide hourly reports to Secretary Salazar and other administration officials.

Interagency Coordination Begins Across the Government, Federal On-Scene Coordinator is Named and Regional Response Team is Stood Up

Interagency coordination begins immediately among federal partners—including the Coast Guard; the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS), Commerce (DOC), Interior (DOI); and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—providing federal assets and overseeing BP’s response. Pursuant to the National Contingency Plan, Rear Admiral Mary Landry was named the Federal On-Scene Coordinator and a Regional Response Team was stood up that included the U.S. Coast Guard, DHS, DOC/NOAA, DOI and the EPA, as well as state and local representatives. The Regional Response Team immediately began developing plans, providing technical advice and access to resources and equipment from its member agencies, and overseeing BP’s response.

The Administration Oversees BP’s Response

The administration begins holding meetings and regular calls with BP leadership to discuss BP’s response effort, as well as federal oversight and support, and urged BP to leverage additional assets to help respond to this event.

Interagency Joint DHS-DOI Investigation Begins

Secretary Salazar and Secretary Napolitano direct that a joint investigation begin into the cause of the event. The investigation, jointly led by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service (MMS), are given subpoena power, will hold public hearings, and call witnesses. MMS and USCG begin interviewing rig personnel.

National Park Service Plans Contingencies to Protect Vulnerable Parks Along Gulf Coast

The National Parks Service (NPS) Spill Response Coordinator, Regional Emergency Services Coordinator, and Deputy Chief of Emergency Services begin strategic planning of contingencies to protect potentially vulnerable national parks along the Gulf Coast. Read the entire timeline here

Ken Salazar Speaks on Offshore Drilling Video

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar says he's hopeful that the energy plan will include cap and trade, which many have dismissed as dead. Sen. John Kerry supports the new plan that Obama announced this morning (watch that here) largely because it is a energy plan that will attract the 60 votes needed to pass climate change legislation. Read republican reaction to the plan here. Environmentalist groups have mixed reactions.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Obama's Seeking $54 Billion in Nuclear Plant Loans

Obama's seeking republican support on energy. Obama is submitting his budget next week, which will triple the amount for nuclear plants. Also, the Energy department will be studying where the spent fuel goes--it isn't going to Yucca Mountain. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu says nuclear power provides 20% of our electricity but 70% of our carbon-free electricity.

No Drill Here Drill Now Just Yet

Ken Salazar, the man in the cowboy hat who heads the department of the interior, halts Bush's drill plan, one of the last things he did before leaving office (of course), pending more time for review and public comments.

MSNBC: The Obama administration on Tuesday overturned another Bush-era energy policy, announcing it was setting aside a draft plan to allow drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

"To establish an orderly process that allows us to make wise decisions based on sound information, we need to set aside" the plan "and create our own timeline," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced in a statement.

Here is the DOI's release:

Saying he needed to restore order to a broken process, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced his strategy for developing an offshore energy plan that includes both conventional and renewable resources.

His strategy calls for extending the public comment period on a proposed 5-year plan for oil and gas development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf by 180 days, assembling a detailed report from Interior agencies on conventional and renewable offshore energy resources, holding four regional conferences to review these findings, and expediting renewable energy rulemaking for the Outer Continental Shelf.

“To establish an orderly process that allows us to make wise decisions based on sound information, we need to set aside the Bush Administration’s midnight timetable for its OCS drilling plan and create our own timeline,” Salazar said.

On Friday, January 16, its last business day in office, the Bush Administration proposed a new five year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing. The proposal was actually published in the Federal Register on January 21, the day after the new Administration took office.
The deadline for public comment that the Bush Administration established - March 23, 2009 – does not provide enough time for public review or for wise decisions on behalf of taxpayers, the Secretary said.

“The additional time we are providing will give states, stakeholders, and affected communities the opportunity to provide input on the future of our offshore areas,” he said. “The additional time will allow us to restore an orderly process to our offshore energy planning.”

Salazar said this evaluation of the proposed plan also needed better information about what resources may be available in the offshore areas. “In the biggest area that the Bush Administration’s draft OCS plan proposes for oil and gas drilling - the Atlantic seaboard, from Maine to Florida - our data on available resources is very thin, and what little we have is twenty to thirty years old,” he said. “We shouldn’t make decisions to sell off taxpayer resources based on old information.”

Salazar directed the United States Geological Survey, the Minerals Management Service, and other departmental scientists to assemble all the information available about the offshore resources – conventional and renewable – along with information about potential impacts. The report is due in 45 days.

Based on that report, the Department will then determine what areas need more information and create a plan for gathering that information. The Department of the Interior oversees more than 1.7 billion acres on the Outer Continental Shelf – an area roughly three fourths of the size of the entire United States.

“To gather the best ideas for how we accomplish the task of gathering the offshore information we need, I will convene four regional meetings in the 30 days after MMS and USGS publish their report,” Salazar said. “I will host one meeting in Alaska, one on the Pacific Coast, one on the Atlantic Coast, and one on the Gulf Coast.” Salazar will ask all interested parties for their recommendations on how to move ahead with a comprehensive offshore energy plan.

The Secretary also will build a framework for offshore renewable energy development, so that the Department can incorporate the significant potential for wind, wave, and ocean current energy into its offshore energy strategy. “The Bush Administration was so intent on opening new areas for oil and gas offshore that it torpedoed offshore renewable energy efforts,” Salazar said.

As a senator, Salazar helped to craft and pass the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which required Interior to move quickly and issue, within 9 months, rules and regulations to guide the development of offshore energy resources, such as wind, wave, and tidal power. It took three years for the Bush Administration to prepare a proposed rule for offshore renewable energy development. They left office without putting any final regulations in place because it was not their priority, Salazar said, notwithstanding the requirement of the law.

“I intend to issue a final rulemaking for offshore renewables in the coming months, so that potential developers know the rules of the road,” Salazar said. “This rulemaking will allow us to move from the ‘oil and gas only’ approach of the previous Administration to the comprehensive energy plan that we need.”

“We need a new, comprehensive energy plan that takes us to the new energy frontier and secures our energy independence,” Salazar said. “We must embrace President Obama’s vision of energy independence for the sake of our national security, our economic security, and our environmental security.”

By adding the 180 day extension to the original 60-day period, interested parties will have had a total of 240 days (8 months) to comment on the proposed plan. The current comment period opened on January 21, 2009.

Why High Gas Prices Are Good

I know the price of gas is crushing some folks but here are a few reasons why high prices are good.

From the Wisdom Journal
2. High gas prices are causing people to drive slower to conserve fuel. What’s the positive here? Fewer highway deaths. According to an article in USA Today, there have been fewer highway deaths every month since October of 2007…just when the current run up in gas prices began in earnest.
3. High gas prices cause families to plan their summer vacations closer to home. As a result, families can discover the great attractions offered nearby. They will spend less time in transit and more time enjoying each other’s company as well as more time enjoying the attraction and their vacation.
4. High gas prices are causing some Americans to rethink (or at least reduce) their attraction to “stuff.” We’re a consumer society without a doubt, but these high gas prices have caused boaters to downsize, RV’ers to downsize, giant SUV drivers to downsize. We’re finding that our needs can be met quite nicely with something smaller, more fuel efficient, and practical. Or maybe we can be satisfied with what we already have.
5. High gas prices are causing more people to ride bicycles or walk to work. What would happen to our society as a whole if a significant portion of the population had to exercise just to get to work? We would potentially see our health care costs go down and our life expectancies go up!
6. High gas prices are increasing interest in mass transit and van pools. What is the direct result? More interaction between people, fewer headaches trying to find a parking space, less fuel consumed, more ideas exchanged (in the van), and more revenue for cities that utilize mass transit systems. There's more.

High gas prices have also tipped car companies to start cranking out smaller cars and they're starting to focus on alternative fuel engines.

Also, offshore drilling will NOT lower gas prices. Here's why

The Bush Bubble

George Bush is trying to tell Americans to insist on offshore oil drilling. He really does live in a bubble.

Schwarzenegger Says McCain Blowing Smoke

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, McCain supporter, anti-offshore drilling, says John McCain and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist are hoodwinking Americans when they say offshore drilling will lower gas prices.

“Anyone who tells you this will lower our gas prices anytime soon is blowing smoke.”

Miami Herald: Flying across the country to support the fight against global warming, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Miami Thursday praised Gov. Charlie Crist's efforts, but firmly separated himself from Crist's recent support of off-shore drilling.

"Politicians have been throwing around all kinds of ideas in response to the skyrocketing energy prices, from rethinking nuclear power to pushing biofuels and more renewables and ending the ban on off-shore drilling, and it goes on and on the list," Schwarzenegger said.

"But anyone who tells you this will bring down our gas prices immediately and/or anytime soon is blowing smoke," he said as the audience applauded. "America is so addicted to oil that it will take years to wean ourselves off from it. And to look for new ways to feed our addiction is not the answer."

Obama's energy plan does not call for offshore drilling.

How about that misleading poll on offshore drilling.

Obama on Oil Drilling

Bush McCain Sellout on Oil Drilling
Even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a republican, says offshore oil drilling will NOT lower gas prices. Florida Governor Charlie Crist is selling out his beaches in a rapid change of position. 

Bush McCain Selling Us Out on Offshore Drilling

Bush is out supporting his guy McCain with a push for offshore drilling. The difference between McCain and Bush, McCain is able to say the word "conservation" and McCain wants to stay out of the Alaskan wildlife refuge, while George would happily drill there.

But they're both wrong.

The only way to lower gas prices, according to energy economists, is to lower demand. The real solution is not a short term one. Unfortunately, our country has put off developing any sort of energy policy that's proactive. There is no short term solution.

There are only long term solutions, which includes alternative energy fuels. In the meantime, we simply have to adjust, ride our bikes, get a smaller car, move closer to work, drive less, work from home part time. We have to make sacrifices now to make up for the lack of leadership on energy in the past three decades.

Bloomberg: President George W. Bush today will urge Congress to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling, a move that is in line with a similar call from Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

``With gasoline now over $4 a gallon,'' Bush ``wants to work with states to determine where offshore drilling should occur,'' and have ``the federal government to share revenues with the states,'' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said yesterday.

Democrats have long opposed Republican efforts to end the ban on offshore drilling that has existed in some areas since 1981. Expanded offshore exploration also has faced opposition in the coastal state of Florida, which will be a battleground in the presidential campaign between McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

``I don't see how either house of Congress passes this,'' said Pete Davis, president of Davis Capital Investment in Washington. ``This has been a long-standing issue and the lines are very hardened.''

Still, rising oil prices are creating a drag on the U.S. economy and energy costs have become a top political issue.

Bush ``is under a lot of pressure to show that he can still be effective on an issue that matters to voters, so this is one they've pulled out of the closet,'' Davis said.

Arizona Senator McCain, 71, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, yesterday called for letting states open up more territory to offshore oil drilling, even as he promised a break from the energy policies of the Bush administration.

Obama Disagrees

Obama, 46, an Illinois senator who the presumptive Democratic nominee, said there is no evidence that lifting the ban on oil drilling would provide relief to consumers.

``This is not something that is going to give relief now, and it's not a long-term solution,'' Obama said yesterday.

The Bush-McCain motive:

As for gas prices, resuming offshore exploration would not be a quick fix.

"If we were to drill today realistically speaking we should not expect a barrel of oil coming out of this new resource for three years, maybe even five years, so let's not kid ourselves," said Fadel Gheit, oil and gas analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. Equity Capital Markets Division.

But it almost certainly would be profitable.

It's always about making the rich guys richer, folks.

McCain’s Tax Cuts Fact Check
Obama Redistribution of Wealth
Drilling at Home Wouldn’t Lower Gas Prices

Drilling At Home Wouldn't Solve Gas Problem

Republicans support drilling here, there, and anywhere, including precious places such as the Alaskan wildlife refuge, but there just aren't enough oil reserves in the U.S. to lower prices, according to a report on NPR this morning. I suspect those who support domestic drilling are just trying to look good to people who don't know any better or help their oil buddies and themselves.

In the short run, we can't reduce gas prices. There really is no short term solution. The solution has to be a long term one. The solution is more fuel efficient, alternative energy cars and other means of transportation.

Wouldn't it be nice not to have war over oil anymore? Just think if our energy policy had long ago required car makers to make gas-free autos by 2010. But our government didn't have the political guts.

Obama is proposing long term solutions, as opposed to McCain, who's still pitching the gas tax holiday, proven to be a gimmick during the primaries. McCain wants to let states decide on offshore drilling.

Obama on Tuesday blasted McCain for changing his stance on offshore drilling.

"John McCain's support of the moratorium on offshore drilling during his first presidential campaign was certainly laudable, but his decision to completely change his position and tell a group of Houston oil executives exactly what they wanted to hear today was the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades," he said in a statement.

"It's another example of short-term political posturing from Washington, not the long-term leadership we need to solve our dependence on oil," he said.

Obama says a windfall profits tax would ease the burden of energy costs on working families. He also wants to invest in affordable, renewable energy sources.