©
RICHMOND
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is asking the U.S. Department of the Interior for more time to gather information and public comment before leasing waters off Virginia's coast for oil and gas drilling.
In a letter to Minerals Management Services Director Randall Luthi, Kaine asked that preparation for the lease sale be delayed to provide time for gathering seismic, biological and environmental data. He asked that the public comment time be extended until the end of February.
The agency originally scheduled the comment period to end Dec. 29, but last week extended that until Jan. 13.
Kaine also said the agency had incorrectly stated that he requested the lease preparation.
The call for information is the first step to leasing waters off Virginia's coast for drilling, which is expected in 2011.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
Missing the point
Instead of addressing the real issue and my original point, which is the extent to which offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in environmental pollution, electricpaul seemingly just wants to split hairs and argue about semantics. So let me try and be more clear. Related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita alone, roughly 9 million gallons of oil were spilled in the Gulf of Mexico REGION. That is, either directly into the Gulf itself or in close proximity to it. Even if most of it ended up in the rivers, wetlands, or other areas adjacent to the Gulf, it still counts as pollution in the general area of the Gulf of Mexico. And does anyone doubt where those onshore facilities got their oil from in the first place?
You finally glanced over the report eh?
Nowhere does it say it flowed into the gulf. STRIKE 1!
So two facilities don't even have direct access to the gulf. STRIKE 2!
You said "roughly 9 million gallons of oil were spilled in the Gulf of Mexico...". Only 1.4 million gallons were ACTUALLY in the gulf! That is only 16% of what YOU said was spilled into the gulf and has been in fact proven. STRIKE 3! Maybe next time you read up on the subject matter before you comment on it? I've lived here for 17 years and we have never had a big problem with those kinds of hurricanes. Their have only been 10 named storms the past 110 years! Here is your research assignment.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastall.shtml Happy reading!
What electripaul forgot to mention
Electricpaul argues that since most of the spillage in the USCG report occurred at “onshore facilities” none of it was “in” the Gulf of Mexico. What he conveniently omits is the fact that, with two exceptions, every one of these facilities is located on the Mississippi River near its mouth. The last time I checked, “Old Man River” flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Of the two exceptions, Port Fourchon, LA is actually on the Gulf itself. He also ignores the following incident from the report: “an integrated tug and barge struck a submerged oil platform that was sunk by Hurricane Rita. Unknown amount of oil discharged (possibly up to 3 million gallons). 1,400,000 gallons have been recovered.”
Thanks editors... what did I say that was factually incorrect?
These "spills" Dharmma mentioned didn't occur in the Gulf of Mexico. I read the report and did the math and it added up to 8,088,000 gallons that was lost at onshore facilities.
You allowed Dahrmas post and it was grossly negligent in it's premise the Governor was correct by citing the United States Coast Guard report. An OFFICIAL report that I have conveniently pasted below. Maybe it would be a good idea to give a brief explanation of why some comments get left off? If I'm wrong about something I should be given the opportunity to correct myself.
http://www.uscg.mil/ccs/npfc/docs/PDFs/Reports/osltf_report_hurricanes.pdf
Kudos to Governor Kaine
So neither Louisiana or Texas have experienced any pollution from their offshore drilling platforms? As usual, some poor misguided soul here has likely been getting his information from ‘Faux’ News. The truth is, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that, during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, roughly 9 million gallons of oil were spilled in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Federal government's Mineral Management Service reported that, during the same two hurricanes, 113 platforms were destroyed and 457 pipelines were damaged. I’m sure glad Governor Kaine, who seems to be approaching the issue of offshore drilling with justifiable caution, is the one representing the interests of Virginia and not of any of the ‘drill, baby, drill’ crowd who so frequently offer up their misinformed comments here.
Drill
Lets start planning now to get to work & start drilling NOW.Let A USA company do it also.Not some foreign interest . Check out -Virginia Natural Gas to add charge for conservation plan.this is a very absurd additional charge on top of what we all ready pay!Let them know!
Virginia Off-Shore Drilling
Governor, the people said to drill off-shore....do it, NOW.
Kaine: Another Do-Nothing Democrat
Apparently Tim Kaine would rather just wait for gas prices to spike again before we begin the process of exploring and drilling for domestic oil. The Democrat Party had to be strong-armed into allowing the drilling in the first place, and now Kaine wants to drag his feet. Why is this so complicated? The rest of the world drills when oil is discovered--and typically with far less concern for the environment than we do.
We're lucky that the price of gas has fallen so far, but now we need to ensure that we're not caught unprepared again. We simply must stop depending on hostile foreign governments for our oil, and we must start creating good jobs over here.
Does Kaine not realize how many desperately-needed (probably union) jobs could be created and how much tax revenue could be generated by drilling? Is Kaine pandering to environmentalists hoping for a role in the Obama administration? Fortunately, he will be gone in just one short year.
What are they waiting for?
Neither Louisiana, Texas or California have experienced any pollution from their offshore drilling platforms. This is just pandering to the environmental extremists.
The longer we wait, the less we'll make on desperately needed tax revenues. We can either open up these opportunities or sit by and watch our taxes go thru the roof.
Bull feathers
Bull feathers