Under fire: Lawmakers call on Salazar to act on OCS confusion.
Lawmakers blast Salazar on OCS silence
Nine US lawmakers strongly criticised Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the Obama administration for not quickly addressing a court case that threatens the current offshore leasing programme.
In a letter sent today, the lawmakers said the administration needs to address a court decision that sent the current five-year offshore leasing plan back to the Interior Deparment for revision.
“We strongly urge the Department of Interior to immediately defend and restore the plan for the development of American oil and gas resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS),” the letter reads. “The department has at its disposal more than 1600 pages of environmental documents used to develop the OCS plan to complete the analysis requested by the court.”
Last month, the three-judge appeals court in Washington rejected the current five-year outer continental shelf leasing programme in a ruling related to a lawsuit designed to halt drilling in certain areas off Alaska.
The court ruled that the department did not properly assess the environmental risk of oil and gas drilling in Arctic areas - specifically the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.
It is up to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to review the programme in light of the ruling.
Interior officials have repeatedly said they have not determined the full extent of the decision including whether it affects areas outside of Alaska and whether it could be used to invalidate existing leases.
Last week, Lars Herbst, who heads the Minerals Management Service’s Gulf of Mexico region, told Upstream the lack of direction on how to interpret the ruling could prevent his agency from awarding leases in the Gulf sold in March or proceeding with a Gulf sale slated for 19 August.
“If left unaddressed, the court decision becomes a de facto ban on any new offshore drilling,” the lawmakers said in their letter. “The administration frequently expresses its support for offshore development and the importance of oil and gas production to the American economy. However, the administrations' words are rarely matched by substantive action that will increase American energy production.”
The lawmakers requested a reply within two weeks.