Dallas – President Obama's proposal to allow oil and gas drilling near Virginia's shorelines and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico should be his stumbling first step towards opening the nation's vast offshore reserves to oil and gas exploration and production, according to NCPA Senior Fellow, H. Sterling Burnett.
"The administration says that we will go into these places if we can do so in an environmentally sensitive manner, but that isn't an issue and hasn't been for some time," Burnett said. "Domestic offshore production is conducted in a safe and clean way at thousands of platforms off our coasts and has been for decades."
Although the administration acts as if it is opening the outer continental shelf, the reality is that it was the Bush administration and the previous Congress that ended the moratorium," Burnett points out.
"The Obama administration has been slow to implement potential oil and gas production through the regulatory and review process and is only grudgingly allowing exploration and production to go forward in a few areas, while halting production in other potential bountiful areas," Burnett said.
While angering environmentalists, the Obama administration claims the expansion in drilling would balance the need to boost domestic energy production while protecting natural resources.
"This is a ploy," Burnett said. "It's an attempt to garner some Republican support and provide some political cover for blue collar Democrats in order to get them to support the Democratic leadership's plans for a massive new energy tax bill in the form of climate change legislation."
"The president appears to be standing up to environmental radicals for the good of the people," Burnett continues. "But with a wink, gives himself the option of changing his mind after he gets the climate legislation the way he really wants it."
For more information or to speak to H. Sterling Burnett, please contact Leah Gipson via the information provided above.