Obama opens Eastern Seaboard to offshore oil, gas exploration

[alarimer]

I'm sick about this. Have we learned nothing from the BP spill? There is also another sale of leases in the Gulf of Mexico happening next month.

http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2014/07/western_gulf_of_mexico_lease_s_2.html

The federal government will offer more than 21 million acres off the Texas coast for oil and gas exploration, the sixth sale in the Gulf of Mexico under its five-year leasing program.

The lease sale, which will be held Aug. 20 in New Orleans, will include more than 4,000 lease blocks covering roughly 21.6 million acres in the western Gulf of Mexico.

The locations of the offered lease areas range from nine to 250 miles offshore and extend to waters more than 10,000 feet deep.

In addition to that, Obama recently announced more exploration of the entire eastern seaboard.

http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2014/07/obama_opens_eastern_seaboard_t.html

The Obama administration is reopening the Eastern Seaboard to offshore oil and gas exploration, approving seismic surveys using sonic cannons that can pinpoint energy deposits deep beneath the ocean floor.

Friday's announcement is the first real step toward what could be a transformation in coastal states, creating thousands of jobs to support a new energy infrastructure. But it dismayed environmentalists and people who owe their livelihoods to fisheries and tourism.

The cannons create noise pollution in waters shared by whales, dolphins and turtles, sending sound waves many times louder than a jet engine reverberating through the deep every ten seconds for weeks at a time. Arguing that endangered species could be harmed was the environmental groups' best hope for extending a decades-old ban against drilling off the U.S. Atlantic coast.

People are concerned about the noise affecting whales and dolphins, which are known to migrate through this area. But the seismic activity also kills fish. I'm more worried about this wholesale urge to "Drill, baby, drill." He seems to have taken a page from the Palin playbook here. And I don't like it one bit.

I know that Obama has an "all of the above" approach to energy independence, but in fact whatever oil or gas they may find will end up on the global market, not in the US to secure energy independence. And the "all of the above" is short-sighted at best.

To me, this is a punch in the gut, yet more evidence that Obama is not pursuing progressive policies when it comes to oil. It appears that he has listened to the lobbyists more than concerned environmentalists.

I know this is going to drop like a stone, because it's not 50 Shades of Grey and the world is actually falling apart at the seams, but I hadn't seen this mentioned anywhere else.