Leases permitting offshore drilling off the coast of Virginia canceled

[Derechos]

It was a day of fast-moving developments in Washington and in the Gulf, where engineers were watching for signs of success from the latest attempt to stanch the leak five weeks into the catastrophe. The so-called "top kill" technique of pumping heavy materials onto the leak appeared to make progress. At the same time, new estimates released by a team of scientists showed the spill has surpassed the Exxon Valdez as the worst in U.S. history, growing to nearly 19 million gallons according to the most conservative estimate.

Obama planned to announce that a moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling permits will be continued for six months while a presidential commission investigates the disaster, a White House aide said.

Controversial lease sales off the coast of Alaska will be delayed pending the results of the commission's investigation, and lease sales planned in the Western Gulf and off the coast of Virginia will be canceled, the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of Obama's news conference.

Those steps, along with new oversight and safety standards also to be announced, are the result of a 30-day safety review of offshore drilling conducted by Salazar at Obama's direction. Salazar briefed Obama on its conclusions Wednesday night.

The new announcements signaled a fundamental shift in the administration's policies on offshore drilling, which Obama promoted and hoped to expand prior to the spill. It was just in March that Obama announced a new policy on offshore drilling, throwing open a huge swath of East Coast waters and other protected areas in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico to drilling. That expansion now looks like it will be dramatically rolled back for some time to come.

Obama will travel to the Gulf Coast on Friday, his second visit since the accident.

The proposed drilling affected by Thursday's announcements include Shell Oil's plans to begin exploratory drilling this summer on Arctic leases as far as 140 miles off Alaskan shores. Now those wells will not be considered until 2011.

In Virginia, the lease sales that have been canceled were in an area of about 2.9 million acres 50 miles or more offshore. The sales had already been postponed indefinitely after the spill.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/27/elizabeth-birnbaum-mms_n_591785.html