President Obama Proposes Controversial Plan to Allow Drilling Off Atlantic Coast
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Washington Post] By Joby Warrick - January 28, 2015 -
The Obama administration on Tuesday outlined a politically fraught plan for allowing oil and gas drilling offshore along parts of the Atlantic coast while imposing new restrictions on environmentally fragile waters off northern Alaska.
The proposals, if finalized, could lead to the appearance of the first drilling platforms along a stretch of the continental shelf running from southern Virginia to Georgia. Any drilling would be at least a decade away and likely subject to intense political and legal battles between industry backers and environmentalists worried about the risk of oil spills.
Other parts of the lease plan would allow 10 sales in the heavily developed Gulf of Mexico, including one in the eastern zone, near Florida. In Alaska, the administration’s proposal would allow one potential lease sale each in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, and another in Cook Inlet, in south-central Alaska.
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