Secretary Salazar Details Strategy for
Comprehensive Energy Plan on U.S. Outer Continental Shelf
Provides More Time for Public
Comment: Incorporates Renewable Energy
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Saying he needed to
restore order to a broken process,
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced his strategy for
developing an offshore energy plan that includes both conventional and
renewable resources.
His strategy calls
for extending the public comment period on
a proposed 5-year plan for oil and gas development on the U.S. Outer
Continental Shelf by 180 days, assembling a detailed report
from Interior agencies on conventional and renewable offshore energy
resources, holding four regional conferences to review these findings,
and expediting renewable energy rulemaking for the Outer Continental
Shelf.
“To establish an
orderly process that allows us to make wise decisions based on sound
information, we need to set aside the Bush Administration’s midnight
timetable for its OCS drilling plan and create our own timeline,”
Salazar said.
On Friday, January
16, its last business day in office, the Bush Administration proposed
a new five year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing. The proposal
was actually published in the Federal Register on January 21,
the day after the new Administration took office.
The deadline for
public comment that the Bush Administration established - March 23,
2009 – does not provide enough time for public review or for wise
decisions on behalf of taxpayers, the Secretary said.
“The additional time
we are providing will give states, stakeholders, and affected
communities the opportunity to provide input on the future of our
offshore areas,” he said. “The additional time will allow us to
restore an orderly process to our offshore energy planning.”
Salazar said
this evaluation of the proposed plan also needed better information
about what resources may be available in the offshore areas. “In the
biggest area that the Bush Administration’s draft OCS plan proposes
for oil and gas drilling - the Atlantic seaboard, from Maine to
Florida - our data on available resources is very thin, and what
little we have is twenty to thirty years old,” he said. “We shouldn’t
make decisions to sell off taxpayer resources based on old
information.”
Salazar directed the
United States Geological Survey, the Minerals Management Service, and
other departmental scientists to assemble all the information
available about the offshore resources – conventional and renewable –
along with information about potential impacts. The report is due in
45 days.
Based on that report,
the Department will then determine what areas need more information
and create a plan for gathering that information. The Department of
the Interior oversees more than 1.7 billion acres on the Outer
Continental Shelf – an area roughly three fourths of the size of the
entire United States.
“To gather the best
ideas for how we accomplish the task of gathering the offshore
information we need, I will convene four regional meetings in the 30
days after MMS and USGS publish their report,” Salazar said. “I will
host one meeting in Alaska, one on the Pacific Coast, one on the
Atlantic Coast, and one on the Gulf Coast.” Salazar will ask all
interested parties for their recommendations on how to move ahead with
a comprehensive offshore energy plan.
The Secretary also
will build a framework for offshore renewable energy development, so
that the Department can incorporate the significant potential for
wind, wave, and ocean current energy into its offshore energy
strategy. “The Bush Administration was so intent on opening new areas
for oil and gas offshore that it torpedoed offshore renewable energy
efforts,” Salazar said.
As a senator, Salazar
helped to craft and pass the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which required
Interior to move quickly and issue, within 9 months, rules and
regulations to guide the development of offshore energy resources,
such as wind, wave, and tidal power. It took three years for the Bush
Administration to prepare a proposed rule for offshore
renewable energy development. They left office without putting any
final regulations in place because it was not their priority, Salazar
said, notwithstanding the requirement of the law.
“I intend to issue a
final rulemaking for offshore renewables in the coming months, so that
potential developers know the rules of the road,” Salazar said. “This
rulemaking will allow us to move from the ‘oil and gas only’ approach
of the previous Administration to the comprehensive energy plan that
we need.”
“We need a new,
comprehensive energy plan that takes us to the new energy frontier and
secures our energy independence,” Salazar said. “We must embrace
President Obama’s vision of energy independence for the sake of our
national security, our economic security, and our environmental
security.”
By adding the 180 day
extension to the original 60-day period, interested parties will have
had a total of 240 days (8 months) to comment on the proposed plan. The current comment period opened on January 21, 2009.
Contact:
Frank Quimby (202)
208-6416
MMS: Securing Ocean Energy & Economic Value for America
U.S. Department of the Interior
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Last Updated:
02/12/2009,
08:00 AM
Central Time