New Offshore Drilling Ban Just the Latest Job-Killing Policy from Dems

Maps Detail Job-Killing Proposal to Lock-Up More of the OCS

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 1, 2010 - Today, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar doubled down on the Obama Administration’s previous offshore drilling moratorium announced in March 2010, by placing EVEN MORE of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off limits to energy development.

As the maps below illustrate, the Obama Administration has moved our country backwards in terms of offshore land available for energy leasing. In 2008, there was bipartisan support to lift the Congressional drilling moratorium, now just two years later, the Administration has unilaterally re-imposed the ban.

Map of OCS when President Obama took Office - January 2009



Map of OCS after President Announced New Drilling Plan - April 2010

* In 2008, facing record gas prices, Congress and President Bush both announced an end to the decades-long ban on offshore drilling. This opened 500 million additional acres for new energy production that contain an estimated 14 billion barrels of oil and 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

* After the moratoria were lifted, the Bush Administration issued a 2010-2015 OCS leasing plan, and solicited comments on all aspects of the plan. The proposal included 31 OCS lease sales in all or some portion of the 12 of the 26 planning areas—4 areas off Alaska, 2 areas off the Pacific coast, 3 areas in the Gulf of Mexico, and 3 areas off the Atlantic coast.

* Under the plan announced by President Obama in April 2010, the majority of the areas open for drilling once the moratoria were lifted were once again closed. This included all of the Pacific Coast, the Northeastern Atlantic and Bristol Bay in Alaska.

* In total, the Obama OCS plan puts 13.14 billion barrels of oil and 41.49 trillion cubic feet of natural gas under lock and key.

* The Administration only considered development of the Mid-Atlantic, Southern Atlantic, Chukchi and Beaufort Sea following Draft Environmental Study work to be conducted over the next year.

* The Administration would allow drilling in a portion of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico if Congress lifted the ban that is in place until 2022.

* President Obama’s latest and most restrictive OCS leasing plan now places the entire Pacific, the entire Atlantic and the Eastern Gulf off limits to future energy production – as it was under the Congressional moratorium.

* This puts some of the most promising shallow water resources in the world off-limits and pushes domestic oil development into a smaller fraction of the Gulf of Mexico and into deeper water.

* Previous lease sales off the coast of Virginia, scheduled to take place in 2011, are on hold until after 2017.

* In Alaska, there is only the potential for lease sales in the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Cook Inlet planning areas before 2017.

* The American Petroleum Institute estimates today’s announcement will cost: 75,000 jobs; $91 billion in cumulative government revenues (royalties, severance taxes, property taxes, income taxes, lease bonuses); 900,000 bbls oil/day; and 2.9 tcf natural gas/day. # # #

TEXT and IMAGE CREDIT: House Committee on Natural Resources, Republicans Contact: Jill Strait or Spencer Pederson (202) 226-2311

John Boehner I'm trying to catch my breath so I don't refer to this maneuver going on today as chicken crap VIDEO

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) weekly press briefing FULL STREAMING VIDEO. “Nonsense”: Boehner Discusses Dems’ Tax Hike Vote Washington (Dec 2)

At his weekly on-camera briefing today, Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-OH) urged Democratic leaders to focus on Americans’ top priority – creating jobs – by cutting spending and stopping all the job-killing tax hikes set to take effect in less than one month. Boehner called Democratic leaders’ plan to hold a tax hike vote today “nonsense,” and said the lame-duck Congress should “act today” to cut spending and stop all the looming tax hikes. Following are excerpts from Boehner’s comments:

BOEHNER SAYS DEMS’ JOB-KILLING TAX HIKE IS “LAST THING OUR ECONOMY NEEDS”:

“On the floor today, the majority is holding a vote to raise taxes on American families and small businesses, and the last thing our economy needs right now is a job killing tax hike, and that's what this plan of theirs would mean. I think it’s pretty clear to get the economy growing again and to create jobs we need to cut spending and stop all of the coming tax hikes. This is something that even President Obama and Democrat leaders at the White House the other day acknowledged.”

BOEHNER CALLS DEMS’ TAX HIKE VOTE “NONSENSE,” SAYS LAME-DUCK CONGRESS SHOULD FOCUS ON CUTTING SPENDING & STOPPING ALL THE TAX HIKES:

“I'm trying to catch my breath so I don't refer to this maneuver going on today as chicken crap. All right? But this is nonsense. All right? The election was one month ago. We are 23 months from the next election and the political games have already started trying to set up the next election. We had an honest conversation at the White House about the challenges that we face to get out of here and to take care of what the American people expect us to. … The American people want us to stop all the looming tax hikes and to cut spending, and that should be the priority of the remaining days that we have in this Congress.”

BOEHNER SAYS REPUBLICANS ARE FOCUSED ON KEEPING PLEDGE TO AMERICA TO CUT SPENDING & STOP ALL THE TAX HIKES:

“Instead of beating around the bush, the Congress ought to act today to stop all the tax hikes, to cut spending, because it would reduce the uncertainty that is affecting employers all across our country. And if the lame duck Congress is unable or unwilling to cut spending and stop all the coming tax hikes, the new majority in January will. That’s what we said in the Pledge to America. We meant it when we said it and that's what we will do.”

TEXT CREDIT: gopleader.gov Contact H-204 The Capitol Washington, DC 20515 P (202) 225-4000 F (202) 225-5117

VIDEO and IMAGE CREDIT: C-SPAN