|
Everybody Loves ObamaOil
Efforts to drill 50 miles off Virginia's coast have garnered unusual bipartisan support here, with both Democratic U.S. senators behind it as well as eight of the state's 11 congressmen. It will be up to those congressional representatives to lead the way on securing royalties from the production of oil and gas.Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte, R-6th, introduced legislation in the House of Representatives last Thursday to clear regulatory roadblocks to drilling. Seven members of Virginia's congressional delegation joined as co-sponsors. Governor McDonnell said he wants Virginia to get the 37.5 percent state's share of revenues that the Gulf Coast states get but indicated that Midwestern states could seek a portion of that money. Congress will decide the percentage of royalties. McDonnell disputed estimates by environmental groups that there is scant oil or gas and said it is likely that more is out there.  "Whether it's a year's worth of oil or whether it's a hundred years worth of oil, whatever we can find offshore is that much less that we have to depend on Iran, Iraq, Venezuela and Russia and other countries that don't always support the United States of America," said McDonnell, flanked by his secretaries of commerce and trade and natural resources at the South Portico of the state Capitol.Environmental groups strongly criticized the decision by Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Offering the Virginia lease sale as soon as 2011 "represents a horrible rush to judgment that trumps thorough environmental study with politics as usual," said Eileen Levandoski, Hampton Roads coordinator with the Sierra Club. "Despite the fact that information on the possible effects of Atlantic drilling is '30 years out of date' as Interior Secretary Salazar points out, Virginia's offshore areas will be leased to Big Oil in little over one year and the bull allowed into the china shop." Virginia is first in line because it was included in an offshore plan proposed by the Bush administration for 2007-12. Posted by: Bobby 2010-04-02 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=293829 |