March 30, 2015

Offshore Energy Plan is Completely Disconnected from Our Energy Needs

Eighty-six percent of offshore energy is off limits from development, and the Interior Department's proposed offshore leasing plan does little to change that.

While the draft plan opens a sliver of the Atlantic coast to development, it's only one lease sale, and there's no guarantee [subscription required] we'll even see it happen, as Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told a House committee:

"So you guarantee that the Atlantic will be part of final version?" [Rep. Doug] Lamborn asked during a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee, which went on despite the snow falling on D.C.

"No, I can't guarantee anything," Jewell responded. "We are in the draft proposed plan phase and we are taking public comment as is required of us by law."

Today is the deadline to submit comments on Interior's 2017-2022 plan.

The governors of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia are on board with expanding offshore energy exploration. For these states, along with Florida and Georgia, new Atlantic leases will mean jobs, economic growth, and greater state tax revenue.

The plan isn't any better when you look beyond the Atlantic coast. It closes off large chunks of Alaska's coast and continues to seal off the Pacific Coast and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico to new leases.

Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber's Institute for 21st Century Energy, has said this plan is a "disconnect between our economy's energy needs and the administration's misguided attempts to meet those needs."

She's right. Unless someone invents some magical new source of energy, oil and natural gas demand will continue for decades. Taking large swaths of the outer continental shelf off the table is simply bad energy policy.  This plan is nowhere near the one needed to meet the needs of America's energy-intensive economy.