The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
The sale of ocean floor parcels for exploratory drilling off Virginia's coast probably won't begin until 2012, a year later than some advocates prefer, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday.
Environmental studies are needed, as well as more input from the military about the possible impact of drilling for oil and natural gas in waters used for Navy training, he added.
"When you look at the Atlantic, we're still very much in a look-and-see mode," Salazar said, two days after he and President Barack Obama announced plans to allow drilling at least 50 miles off Virginia's shoreline. It is estimated that the area where drilling might occur could hold 130 million barrels of oil and 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Salazar cautioned that much of the information about the 2.9-million-acre underwater plot along the Outer Continental Shelf is 30 years old and needs to be updated. Other issues include securing a share of future royalties for Virginia and determining the boundary lines that extend into the ocean from borders of the mid-Atlantic states, he added.
Gov. Bob McDonnell, who wants to use drilling profits to pay for road improvements, has lobbied for congressional approval of a profit-sharing plan. Salazar said such approval, which some land locked states oppose, could be incorporated into a package of energy and climate change legislation.
Before his public comments Friday, Salazar discussed energy policy with McDonnell during lunch. The interior secretary visited Richmond to herald the release of economic figures showing the 162,000 jobs gained by the U.S. economy in March, the largest in three years, though some are temporary census positions.
"The job figures released today are good news for the whole nation," said Salazar, a former Democratic senator from Colorado. He attributed the data to the effects of federal stimulus spending.
Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com
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Truthseeker
He may not be infallible but he is sincere.
Stock Market
Was the market closed yesterday. I did not see a business page in today's VP and I usually track the oil prices from that page. Friday's stock results are usually in the Saturday edition.
Wait, there's more--
I only hope we can wait that long to get our state transportation problems fixed. Bobby Mc D promised he would do it out of oil royalties, and we all know that he is infallible!
Infallible...
...maybe if Mark Warner and Tim Kaine had actually done something other than overtax us in the first place we wouldn't have these "transportation problems". Take the blinders off! Our problems began with the gas/oil crisis 2 years ago. EVERYTHING was negatively impacted by the price of energy/gas/oil. And don't forget the federal government is responsible for interstate maintenance too! Maybe Warner/Webb can get with Uhbama and get some federal dollars for us? Or was Soviet style socialized medicine more important than jobs, education and transportation? Kaine blew through a $500,000,000 "surplus" during his tenure by the way...are you giving him a free pass on that one?
Now only if Uhbama/Reid/Pelosi...
will put some measures in place to prevent OPEC & Hugo Chavez from manipulating the world oil market we'll be in better shape. They won't do it though. The oil market is what ruined our economy not Bush. Every holiday as demand goes up the price goes up and if they decide to pump less oil out of the ground the price goes up and it's a double whammy! That is why it is important for us to pump more domestic oil out of our ground! Then we too become a big player in the supply of oil and therefore the cost. As technology gets better and we can make more and more efficient vehicles and produce engines that don't need a fossil fuel it gets even better. We need to keep the horse before the cart until we don't need oil/gas burning engines anymore for everyday life in America! Happy Easter everyone!
Say what?
No one can 'put measures into place' to prevent the manipulation of any market unless you have complete control of a commodity. The United States is far from having any controlling interest in the world's oil market. We may have one of the largest demands for oil, but even with all the offshore drilling, we will be far from being able to meet our needs, thus America will be held hostage to those that do have large supplies of oil. This situation makes it imperative for our country to develop other energy resources and push for better fuel efficiency with all oil product consuming engines build and used in America.
Surprised?
This process is going to take time. I'll be surprised if any test drilling is started before 2015. What used to only take months to get going now takes years because of our overgrown system of bureaucracy. A great accomplishment for this country would be a major system of reform to cut down on the overload of bureaucracy that delays nearly everything from defense contracts to road and bridge building. Such reforms would save a lot of taxpayer money too.
The Persian Gulf has oil rigs as far as the eye can see.
The U.S. Navy has been operating carrier battle groups there (sometimes two at a time) for over 20 years (been there, done that) and has never collided with one.
And the Persian Gulf is a lot smaller and more confined than the Western Atlantic Ocean.
The same lame excuse (U.S. Navy operations being impacted) is thrown up about off-shore wind turbines.
Enough with all the excuses already!
Let's get started!
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu
Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)
Wait Wait Wait!!!
Is always the problem here. As a businessman I cannot afford to tie up billions of dollars on waiting for government bureaucracy paperwork clearance. By the time the permitting process is cleared (several years) the construction cost has increased by at least 12%. Stream lining processes for businesses due to the severity of our nation’s dependence on hostile nations fuel, as well as jobs, needs to become the main priority.
yes we can
It is very funny that some think the military cannot operate around oil rigs since the military does it all the time in California.
A good magician is able to divert the attention away but the "can't do" groups cannot escape the whole stage by using the same old "reasons" of "only six day supply" and "it will be ten years before" and "the military can't manueveer" and "oil spills". Those old reasons have been proven time and again that they are just diversions to their real objective - doing nothing to end our dependency on foreign oil.