President Obama’s administration said in a press conference the previous week that it will not approve of any scoping activities to be undertaken in the Atlantic Coast and the eastern Gulf of Mexico for purposes of offshore drilling projects. The ban on such activities equates to a seven-year ban on oil exploration campaigns in the areas specified for the next seven years at minimum. The new order in effect reverses Obama’s original decision back in March to allow scoping of the said areas for potential drilling operations by oil companies who are planning to lease oil-rich spots for periods spanning from 2012 to 2017.
Obama’s administration chose to reverse the president’s initial decision shortly after the Deepwater Horizon incident occurred. The blown up oil rig inadvertently disrupted the administration’s comfort zones regarding oil drilling safety, quality and inspection adequacies. On the other hand, the new order does not totally ban all domestic offshore drilling rigs from operating. It simply put in place plans to limit western and central gulf drilling ahead of their scheduled implementation. In fact, the said areas have actively been mined by oil companies for decades past, and the administration is only working towards regulating operations with more stringent policies.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar reports that his department simply wants to make full use of critical resources to improve regulation on oil rigging operations currently in place. What stakeholders are still puzzled about is the question of why the administration decided to make a turn about on the Atlantic Coast.