The Obama administration has canceled a Bush auction of oil and gas leases near national parks in Utah, including Arches National Park.
(Jerret Raffety/Rawlins Daily Times/AP/File)Photos (1 of 1)
Obama stalls Bush drilling plans
The new administration has moved quickly to reverse or delay Bush policy on drilling and pollution.
By Daniel B. Wood | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor/ February 11, 2009 edition
Los Angeles
Less than a month into his administration, President Obama is making good on campaign promises to move toward a comprehensive approach to US energy and to broaden environmental protections. The administration has moved over the past few weeks to undo many of Bush’s last-minute drilling and environmental decisions, including putting the brakes Tuesday on a plan to open up vast new areas off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to offshore drilling.
In swift succession, the Obama administration has:
• Ordered the Environmental Protection Authority to reconsider its decision to deny California permission to set standards controlling greenhouse-gas emissions from motor vehicles – if permitted, this would allow 13 more states to follow suit.
• Abandoned a Bush administration legal appeal in a major air pollution case – signaling it will allow tougher rules to cut mercury emissions from power plants.
• Canceled 77 Bush-era oil and gas leases over 100,000 acres of public land near national parks in Utah.
• Announced an intent to develop an offshore energy plan that includes renewable resources, giving states and the federal government more time to study and assess the future of offshore energy planning.
“There’s clearly a new kid in town. The Obama administration is moving quicker on the environment than anything else,” says Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies. “They are concerned that untoward things are going to happen before they can get new policies in place, so they are trying to reverse old ones.”
In the most recent move to stall Bush policy, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Tuesday that the time period for public comment on a draft five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing would be extended for another 180 days. He also ordered the US Geological Survey and the Minerals Management Service to develop an extensive profile of the nation’s resources offshore.
The plan, which was proposed by the Bush administration on its last day in office and published the day after President Obama took office, originally allowed 45 days for scoping and comment.
Describing the plan as “a headlong rush of the worst kind,” Mr. Salazar said that “Bush’s “midnight action” accelerated by two years the regular process for creating a new plan for the outer continental shelf.
“It opened up the possibility for oil and gas leasing along the entire Eastern Seaboard, portions of offshore California, and the far eastern Gulf of Mexico, with almost no consideration of state, industry, and community input and … with very limited information about the nature of offshore resources,” he said.
The new administration will look at offshore drilling as part of a comprehensive energy plan, he said. The changes are to “fulfill President Obama’s commitment to a government that is open and inclusive and makes decisions based on sound science and the public interest.”
“I intend to do what the Bush administration refused to do; build a framework for offshore renewable-energy development so that we incorporate the great potential for wind, wave, and ocean current energy into our offshore energy strategy.”
In a similar move last week, the Interior secretary announced that the Bureau of Land Management would withdraw drilling leases that were offered on 77 parcels of US public land near national parks in Utah. The leases, on land totaling 103, 225 acres, are under litigation in district court.
Development of oil and gas supplies was needed to help reduce dependence on foreign oil, but it must be done in a “thoughtful and balanced way that allows us to protect our signature landscapes and culture resources,” said Salazar, adding that the BLM would return $6 million in bids from an auction last December.
Also last week, the Justice Department said it is withdrawing a US Supreme Court appeal filed by the Bush administration against a court ruling governing mercury emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants.
The Obama administration has also told the EPA to reconsider denying California the power to regulate vehicular pollution. The Bush administration’s EPA in 2007 had denied California the waiver needed to authorize its special status under the Clean Air Act. That law gives California the authority to regulate vehicular pollution because the state began doing so before the federal government did.
Leading environmental groups, which were often at odds with Bush, are breathing a palpable sigh of relief. “We are encouraged by Obama’s announcement that he is going to restore order to a broken system and that is what this is,” says Kristina Johnson, deputy press secretary for the Sierra Club.
“This five-year offshore drilling program that Bush tried to push through wasn’t based on sound science, and there was no public input,” she said. “It’s part of a new way of doing business. [The Obama administration understands] that the answer to America’s energy problems isn’t more drilling and that we need to be investing in clean energy.”
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Comments
2. Mike | 02.11.09
Thank you President Obama! Instantly I see a 20 cent per gallon increase in my gas prices. I have to drive 44 miles one way to get to my new job that replaces the one I was layed off from at only 80% of what I used to make. I can’t sell my house in this market to move closer. So thanks for the anti-stimulus!
3. Andrew | 02.11.09
One has to be willing to sacrifice in the present for future good. We’ve become so used to instant gratification and the present pleasures and comforts of life that for many it’s akin to suicide to delay present wants (or even needs), and truly sacrifice for the ultimate future good of both ourselves and our posterity. There will be no change in the present situation unless we change, and I’m talking to myself as much as I am on anyone else… I have the same problem.
4. Jason | 02.11.09
Finally a move in the right direction. A direction with a future and not the downward spiral we have been in for the past 10+ years. If you want to blame gas prices on anyone blame the oil corporations. They have chosen to stop drilling specifically to drive prices up. If you do not believe it that is fine. Nor should you. Go watch the press hearing that took place in which they announced it. R&D. Find the truth.
5. rob | 02.11.09
wow mike! a 20 cent increase as of today is like, oh still at least a one dollar decrease from what bush had….and you know that selling a house for the last year, if not longer, was nearly impossible….and at least you have a new job to replace the one you lost…still sounds like obama is on the right track….some folks should truly look at what they have and be thankful, rather than live in the past or wish for more….i was concerned that the american perspective had become focused on “me” as opposed to “us” and thrived in the bush era, however, obama is changing that and making this country once again, one to look up to as empathetic and a role model….kudos to our new president for putting “us” first
6. Pata | 02.11.09
Great news!
Thank you mightily for publishing this piece. Even though it’s more than 30 years overdue, we’re finally moving forward and away from the egregiously wasteful and detrimental internal combustion engine.
Hallelujah!
7. darlene | 02.11.09
Hey Rob,
Did you know that gas prices were not raised by bush? Also houses in my neighborhood were selling like hotcakes a year ago. It was only after Obama told the american people how bad they were hurting that poeple stopped buying houses I believe that was around october of 2008. Because I bought my house in September of 2008, before I knew we were so bad off. And if America is so self centered why is it that we always step in to help the poor and hurting people. Like all those people in Africa that Bush helped with vaccinations and different meds for parasites. Or how about Iraq…. The Democrats thought we were there for the oil……..when all we did was to free a nation. You know Freedom that sweet endearing right we all had before we became a socialist nation. But thats ok it will be something to tell your grandkids about. Your right he is changing the country.
8. Nasim Wehbe | 02.11.09
Well when it comes to oil 70% of Americans were all for drilling. If these politicians work for us then they need to listen to us. I do not want to give up my rights to the government. I do not want the government taking away from me a hobby that I have grown to love. This planet has warmed up and cooled on its for millions of years WITHOUT the influence of manking. If your worried about the enviroment then think about what happens to the battery in your electric powered car when its no good. We will have millions of acid filled batteries laying around. This is rediculous. We need to drill for our own oil now. I refuse to give up my rights to the government.
9. Connelly Barnes | 02.11.09
I’m 25. I don’t drive at all. I don’t own a house, because it isn’t worth the upkeep. I don’t buy consumer goods. I feel like my fellow American citizens are a pretty shallow, dull bunch. They’re largely just concerned with numbers, for money. Jsheeh people, don’t you know that there’s an infinite amount of money you could make, but only a limited amount of time in your life. Time’s the only non-renewable resource, and most Americans seem concerned with just having high time preference, short term thinking, and so forth. What a waste! What you make is what you do with your time, not the number of coins in your basement. The government won’t save you and neither will money. Grow up, people.
10. Mike | 02.11.09
This story is leaving out some important facts. During the campaign, President Obama said very clearly that he would support additional drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific, so to counter the Christian Science Monitor’s assertion that he is following through on campaign promises, I would assert the opposite, that he lied then and he is not following through on promises he made to get elected.
Christian Science Monitor had to have known about this, it was deliverately widely publicized because Obama was sinking in the polls. I think this misinformation would qualify the Christian Science Monitor as a propaganda rag for the Obama Administration. Congratulations, gang.
11. Woody | 02.11.09
This is nuts. The Feds should be promoting drilling off our coasts and on our lands. They (politicians)would have an additional source of revenue that they could waste and at the same time, reduce our dependence on foreign sources for oil. They are not serious about lessening our dependence on OPEC. A consumer can be enslaved.
12. Daniel | 02.12.09
Music to my ears; especially, when accompanied by a Greek chorus of whining nitwits. The false conservatives who want to strip mine our resources are as heedless of the future as travelers who empty all of their water before embarking across a desert.
13. Sherry | 02.12.09
There could be no better investment in America than to invest in America becoming energy independent! We need to utilize everything in out power to reduce our dependence on foreign oil including using our own natural resources. Create cheap clean energy, new badly needed green jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The high cost of fuel this past year seriously damaged our economy and society. The cost of fuel effects every facet of consumer goods from production to shipping costs. After a brief reprieve gas is inching back up. OPEC will continue to cut production until they achieve their desired 80-100. per barrel. If all gasoline cars, trucks, and SUV’s instead had plug-in electric drive trains, the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of North Dakota. There is a really good new book out by Jeff Wilson called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy
14. Craziness | 02.12.09
Mike…poor baby,your gas will go up. We shouldn’t be using gas at all anymore. Read, learn, understand…Mike. You’re living in the sustainably impossible dark ages.
15. Jack | 02.12.09
Attaboy Obama! Thanks for saving our heritage. No one will even remember a few cents in Gas price in a few decades. But they will remember if the arches in the arches monument fell down.
Thanks for being far sighted, and not giving in to these sniveling, cheap chinese plastic junk addicted, lazy, cleptocratic republican layabouts.
16. Wildbluyonder11 | 02.12.09
While some may see Obama’s policies as admirable and enlightened, I believe that he has been too narrow-minded and impulsive. He has said that he would consider drilling more at home as part of a comprehensive energy plan, but it’s very clear that his focus is more on these “renewable” energies of the “future”. Unfortunately for us, wind and solar have been energies of the “future” for the past 3 decades at least and they really haven’t shown much progress in my opinion. I believe many of Obama’s policies are more geared toward sticking it to Bush and conservative Republicans than they are toward actual progress.
17. CommanderBill | 02.16.09
When gas is $5 a gallon at the pump you enviormental fanatics will be less pleased that Obama lied during his election about drilling.
18. Rodney | 02.16.09
“When gas is $5 a gallon at the pump you enviormental fanatics will be less pleased that Obama lied during his election about drilling,” by Commander Bill.
Well “Commander Bill”, when true-cost economics are considered, your argument only supports what really needs to be done if we are to put forth a world that will be able to support our grandchildren. Yes, the costs may be higher in the present. As others on here have noted, if we are to invest in the future, then we must give more today. It is not science. If you are so self-centered as to jeopardize your grandchild’s future for how much you pay to feed your vehicle today, it is very possible that you have deeper issues than “which” president was in office when “what” happened. Anyone reading this, please research “true cost economics” if you want to understand what has been going wrong in that field and the world.
19. Utah Resident | 02.17.09
The author needs to get his facts straight.
Each of those leases were not snuck through the Bush Adiministration, but the were executed and approved for leasing in 2001 by the Clinton administration after performing $25 million dollars of environmental studies.
Look on a map they are now where near the actual Aches, etc. There are existing wells and leases surrounding all of the 77 leases. The media put a spin on the sale in the wrong direction.
20. dail melton | 02.17.09
Obama has the right approach to solving some of the problems we have today.
Gas, is going to go up, whether its him in office or bush. The oil barons want that. Pollution, is going to increase, no matter who is in office, if we don’t work together as a humanity to stop it.
There are alternatives, but to often we hear “It will never fly Oriville!” Only to see a solution such as that of flight, take off and spread its wings. For humanity to survive, we must change.
21. Kevin | 02.20.09
Obama’s plan is pure and simple, economic suicide! Create a false problem, aka global warming, then convince the morons to do things that are stupid and evil. Think Hitler and the JEW problem. That’s the end goal of the religion of global warming. Please have an Al Gore concert, then drink the cool aid, problem solved no more evil environmentalist. Being a conservationist is cool; hunters, fishermen, ranchers and that use the land wisely. Environmentalism is just liberal communism, do as I say not as I do.
22. Jenny | 02.28.09
For all of you that support this brilliant plan, can you please call my cousin’s 3 young children and tell them how wonderful it is that their Dad lost his job and that they will lose their home- since he works on an oil rig that’s out in the middle of nowhere and not remotely close to any of Utah’s prized natural areas. Maybe you can peddle our president’s vision of hope and change to them. I suppose ignorance is bliss.
23. Darby | 08.21.09
You dont even know how this has impacked utah
almost and all the communites in it. Are unemployment has
increase to the highest it has ever been. Thanks to Oboma
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1. Ida Wong | 02.11.09
can i give my sincere thanks to president obama. a man with vision and modern altitude. his actions truely gives me hope now. i so look forward to the new future of the world. i am not from US. but i think we are all part of planet earth. what happens in US affects us all too.