Regulators reject Va. pleas to delay drilling plans

Federal regulators have rejected pleas from state and congressional leaders to delay plans for oil and gas drilling off the Virginia coast until President-elect Barack Obama can take up the contentious matter.

In a letter before Christmas, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine asked the federal Minerals Management Service to put off its offshore planning process until Feb. 28 "to allow time for the new administration that will take office in January to consider its options to the proposed actions."

Before then, a group of East Coast senators and congressmen, including U.S. Rep. James P. Moran, a Democrat from Northern Virginia, urged the federal MMS to drop the idea altogether, citing environmental and national security concerns.

"We do not believe that MMS should begin a process that it cannot finish," wrote the 10 lawmakers from New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Virginia.

They noted in a separate letter that "we recognize that the Bush administration has long supported energy exploration in this area" but said studying the possible exploration and drilling off Virginia could take years to complete.

While rejecting calls for such extensive delays, the MMS has said it will extend a public comment period by two weeks, to Jan. 13, on the first stage of an environmental analysis of an offshore project.

The service cited recent holidays, not politics, as its rationale.

In an interview Wednesday, the director of the Minerals Management Service, Randall B. Luthi, a Wyoming lawyer and rancher, said the political push about timing and Obama is "not necessarily unexpected."

Luthi, appointed to the post by President Bush in July 2007, said the flap misses a larger point: Any exploration or drilling off Virginia is years away and will come only after significant study and public input.

"The reality is, the next administration can delay the process, speed up the process or imprint the process as they see fit," he said.

Congress had banned oil and gas drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf of the Atlantic Ocean for nearly 30 years. With energy prices fluctuating and the desire to veer from foreign sources high, the government has pushed to allow some drilling for offshore fossil fuels.

The MMS has recommended a sale of exploration and drilling rights in a wedge-shaped swath of the Atlantic at least 50 miles from the Virginia shore.

Obama initially opposed the idea. He changed course during the campaign and now says he favors offshore drilling as part of a broader, greener energy policy and if environmental studies and neighboring states approve.

Luthi said that if Virginia leads the way, "the potential is somewhat phenomenal." It could trigger a "process to increase domestic production dramatically, which is something I personally support."

Environmental groups see Virginia as "the crack in the door" through which oil and gas companies hope to walk in their drive to exploit larger reserves elsewhere.

"MMS, still obviously in bed with Big Oil, wants nothing more than to limit the scope" of environmental studies in Virginia, said Eileen Levandoski, conservation coordinator in Hampton Roads for the Sierra Club, an environmental group.

In his letter to the MMS, Kaine said his administration still is considering whether "to become a cooperating agency" with offshore activity.

His biggest concerns, he wrote, are that the federal government is not following state energy policy, which calls for exploration of natural gas only off the Virginia coast, and does not support any oil exploration or any gas drilling until studies are completed.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com