Obama eyes Alaska oil
Source: Agencies |
May 15, 2011, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
US President Barack Obama, under pressure from Republicans and the American public to bring down gasoline prices, announced new measures yesterday to expand domestic oil production in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.
High fuel prices have dented Obama's ratings and threaten to dampen the economic recovery that is critical to his re-election in 2012.
The president, a Democrat, has pushed for reducing US oil consumption and expanding renewable energy sources while also focusing on domestic oil and gas production - an area Republicans want to expand dramatically.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president met some of those Republican demands, outlining ways to boost domestic drilling and better coordinate the process of issuing permits in Alaska.
"I am directing the Department of Interior to conduct annual lease sales in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve, while respecting sensitive areas, and to speed up the evaluation of oil and gas resources in the mid and south Atlantic," Obama said.
Government lease sales give energy companies the opportunity to rent offshore or onshore federal tracts, which can be drilled for oil or natural gas. Firms generally lease the tracts for 10 years.
The administration banned new exploration on offshore leased tracts for about six months after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
(Reuters)
High fuel prices have dented Obama's ratings and threaten to dampen the economic recovery that is critical to his re-election in 2012.
The president, a Democrat, has pushed for reducing US oil consumption and expanding renewable energy sources while also focusing on domestic oil and gas production - an area Republicans want to expand dramatically.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president met some of those Republican demands, outlining ways to boost domestic drilling and better coordinate the process of issuing permits in Alaska.
"I am directing the Department of Interior to conduct annual lease sales in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve, while respecting sensitive areas, and to speed up the evaluation of oil and gas resources in the mid and south Atlantic," Obama said.
Government lease sales give energy companies the opportunity to rent offshore or onshore federal tracts, which can be drilled for oil or natural gas. Firms generally lease the tracts for 10 years.
The administration banned new exploration on offshore leased tracts for about six months after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
(Reuters)
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