USA / FILE: President Barack Obama announces drilling for oil and natural gas expansion
Record ID:
345058
USA / FILE: President Barack Obama announces drilling for oil and natural gas expansion
- Title: USA / FILE: President Barack Obama announces drilling for oil and natural gas expansion
- Date: 1st April 2010
- Summary: HOUSTON, TEXAS (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OIL REFINERIES
- Embargoed: 16th April 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Energy
- Reuters ID: LVA76VDQR5H84HQHJYD26BFAE6ND
- Story Text: U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday plans for a broad expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling.
Obama, who wants Congress to move a stalled climate change bill, has sought to reach out to Republicans by signalling he is open to allowing offshore drilling, providing coastlines are protected. Allowing offshore drilling would also create jobs and reduce U.S. long-term dependence on foreign oil.
"What I want to emphasize is that this announcement is part of a broader strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on homegrown fuels and clean energy," Obama said in a speech at Andrews Air Force Base.
He said his administration would consider new areas for drilling in the mid and south Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, while protecting sensitive regions in the Arctic.
The president, who needs bipartisan support to pass the bill that would set limits on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, cautioned that expanding drilling was not a catch-all answer to U.S. energy challenges.
"Drilling alone cannot come close to meeting our long-term energy needs, and ... for the sake of the planet and our energy independence, we need to begin the transition to cleaner fuels now," Obama said.
"I know that we can come together to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation that will foster new industries and millions of new jobs protecting our planet and helping us become more energy independent," he said.
For more than 20 years, drilling was banned in most offshore areas of the United States outside the Gulf of Mexico because of concerns that spills could harm the environment.
The administration has been weighing the pros and cons of offshore drilling since it took office and put the brakes on a Bush-era proposal that called for drilling along the U.S. East Coast and off the coast of California.
Interior Department officials said the department will conduct the first new offshore oil and gas sale in the Atlantic Ocean in more than two decades as part of a lease sale 50 miles (80 km) off the coast of Virginia. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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