Obama Bans Oil-Gas Exploration Permanently Off Virginia Coast?
Earlier today President Barack Obama, in a stunning policy reversal, has banned any oil or natural gas drilling off the Atlantic Coast.
White House officials described their actions to make the areas off limits to future oil and gas exploration and drilling as indefinite. Officials said the withdrawals under Section 12-A of the 1953 act used by presidents dating to Dwight Eisenhower cannot be undone by an incoming president. It is not clear if a Republican-controlled Congress can rescind Obama’s action.
“There is a precedent of more than half a century of this authority being utilized by presidents of both parties,” a White House aide said. “There is no authority for subsequent presidents to un-withdraw. .?.?. I can’t speak to what a future Congress will do.”
Virginia, since at least the beginning of the McDonnell administration, has been pursuing oil and natural gas exploration off the coast and actually had the Obama administration in agreement until the Deepwater Horizon accident derailed the lease sale plans in 2010.
Commenting on today’s action, Virginia GOP gubernatorial aspirant Ed Gillespie said:
“The purported permanent ban on oil and natural gas exploration in areas off Virginia’s deep-sea coast is exactly the kind of Washington power grab that so many of us rejected in November. This unprecedented assertion of executive power could have real and lasting economic consequences on our Commonwealth, further delaying the good-paying jobs, economic growth and transportation revenue that would result from deep-sea energy exploration. As governor, I will strongly urge the Trump Administration and Congressional leaders to explore every possible avenue to reverse this action and move quickly to allow Virginia to safely and responsibly develop the energy resources available to us.”
One gets the sense that the last month of the Obama administration will reveal the president’s true proclivities…and we all might pay for it.
