Rather than adhering to the Beltway tradition of waiting for Friday to release bad news, Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar eschewed convention today and dropped a bomb on American energy independence, economic recovery, and public opinion when he announced that the next offshore drilling program will not begin until 2012.When Salazar took office last year there was an existing leasing plan set to begin in 2010, a plan that critics believed the Obama administration would alter but not scrap completely. After massive unrest in the summer of 2008 over $4-per-gallon gasoline, Congress finally lifted its 25-year ban on offshore drilling, clearing the way for a common-sense leasing plan.
Even President Obama as a candidate embraced offshore drilling during the presidential campaign.
Apparently the Obama administration actually believed that a quarter of century of bans on offshore drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf was not enough of time to wait for more affordable American energy.
In speaking with reporters this afternoon, Secretary Salazar said that the next five-year plan for offshore drilling would have to wait another two years, yet another needless delay prompted by a fierce commitment to hamstring responsible energy development.
Perhaps Secretary Salazar is making one of those "tough decisions" on offshore drilling of which President Obama spoke in his State of the Union. After all, what could be tougher than assuming office on a platform of government accountability and then blatantly ignoring a clear majority of Americans who support offshore drilling?
According to the Minerals Management Service, there are an estimated 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Outer Continental Shelf, collectively representing a clear path toward being able to ignore OPEC and foreign dictators for our energy.
Developing these resources would also create hundreds of thousands of jobs annually and generate billions of dollars in tax revenue for the government.
But, evidently, the Obama administration is more interested in blocking affordable energy than pursuing economic recovery, as evidenced not only with this latest assault on offshore drilling but through more than a year of systematically imposing delays, restrictions, and regulations on affordable and reliable American energy.
Read the NARUC report www.naruc.org/News/default.cfm?pr=183 and it shows how not drilling will cost Americans $2.36 trillion over 20 years.
And for those who think green manufacturing will fill the gap - think again. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/global/01minerals.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1. China has the monopoly on the rare earth elements (REE) required to make many of the windmills, superconducting wire, formable permanent magnets, high tech displays, lasers, electric cars, advanced batteries, chemical catalysts, military defense equipment, etc.
And China has said it will stop exporting many of the REEs starting in 2012.
We're screwed unless we vote out ALL the progressives! They've all contributed to this fiasco that will enslave our grandchildren through debt and numbing regulations.