West Coast drilling due to political opposition
Oil companies looking for new sources are blocked from West Coast drilling due to political opposition, while politicians in the Southeast are welcoming, said API offshore policy adviser Andy Radford.
The Democratic governors of California, Oregon and Washington this summer stressed to Interior Secretary Sally Jewel that they oppose drilling off their coasts. The federal agency is updating which federal waters would be open for companies to explore and drill for oil and gas starting in 2017. Drilling was not worth the risk of another disaster like the 1969 oil spill off Santa Barbara, California, the West Coast governors said.
"The political realities are that there's going to be no opportunities for drilling in that area in the near future," Radford said at an energy conference in Wilmington. "Here on the Atlantic coast, the reason for industry interest is because the elected officials in these states, it's bipartisan up and down the coast."
A coalition of governors along the Gulf Coast and Southeast who support offshore drilling is chaired by North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory. McCrory said besides the prospect of good jobs and business profits, more states should contribute to building American energy independence from foreign imports by allowing drilling.
"We are hypocrites in North Carolina if we expect to get all our energy from somewhere else and just expect that our hands are clean in this whole thing," he said.
American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard said big increases in fossil fuel production in recent years already have lowered U.S. gasoline prices despite wars and instability in the Middle East. He wants favorable regulations, permission to drill on federal land, undersea seismic testing to find promising oil and gas deposits and the inclusion of underwater fields off the Southeast in the Interior Department's coming five-year offshore leasing plan.