Trump administration plans to allow drilling off all U.S. waters

[herding cats]

Source: Washington Post

The Trump administration unveiled a controversial plan Thursday to permit drilling in all U.S. waters, including protected areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic, where oil and gas exploration is opposed by governors from New Jersey to Florida, nearly a dozen attorneys general, more than 100 U.S. lawmakers and the Defense Department.

More than 3 billion barrels of oil is recoverable on the outer continental shelf, along with more than 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the Interior Department, which announced the plan. States stand to gain royalties from extraction of these natural resources, and drilling could create hundreds of jobs.

But the plan faces a wave of bipartisan state opposition, led in part by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, who has said: “I’m not in favor of offshore drilling.” A catastrophe on the scale of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil leak in 2010 would be disastrous for one of the state’s most precious resources, the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) is opposed out of concern over drilling’s impact on the state’s natural resources. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie fired off a letter to the Interior agency that issues permits saying the state “strongly opposes any waters off our coastline being considered for inclusion in this leasing program,” citing its $44 billion beach tourism industry that creates more than 300,000 jobs.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/01/04/trump-administration-plans-to-allow-drilling-off-all-u-s-waters/?hpid=hp_no-name_no-name%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar&tidr=a_breakingnews&utm_term=.c1074986c1cf

[enough]

1. What took them so long? NT

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Too busy winning! NT

[Vinca]

2. Back to the future. Even the Saudis are promoting solar.

[Eliot Rosewater]

4. Deplorables think climate change is a conspiracy by Satan.

[TDale313]

5. Can we just say...

Between this and Sessions rescinding the rule that Feds will take a hands off approach to States that have legalized marijuana, today has been this Administration agressively saying fuck you to Coastal States (mostly West Coast- particularly California) We’re being targeted- we were in the Tax Scam as well.

[mindem]

6. Vindictiveness

is all it amounts to, it has nothing to do with good policy.

[Still In Wisconsin]

10. You are correct...all this amounts to is Trump rage, played out in domestic policy fiat. n/t

[procon]

7. This looks more like another one of Trump's petty, retaliatory strikes against

coastal states like NY and California that voted against him and routinely challenge his decrees in court. I expect that this too will end up in the court system, pitting states rights against Federal demands.

[Bengus81]

8. Well then...set up several dozen rigs right off shore from Mar-a-Lago

Bet Trumps zillionaire friends will love the new scenery.

[greymattermom]

17. And make sure some oil spills

right on that beach. Tar balls for Trump.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. These clowns really, really respect "States' Rights" in a highly way.

[Squinch]

11. More and more, I think the secret of the future is to use as little oil and gas as you can.

Invest in renewables, use renewables whenever possible, get rid of your big car whenever possible.

Starve these assholes out.

They know they will be obsolete soon and they're determined to squeeze every penny out of raping the earth while they can.

They convince people that a big honking truck is a symbol of manhood or wealth or status or some fool thing, when it's really your own death warrant. Same with the big honking house that bankrupts you when you try to heat or cool it with fossil fuels.

All of their power, all of the problems in the middle east, most of the major problems in the world would go away if we weaned ourselves off fossil fuels. And it is definitely do-able in our lifetimes.

[byronius]

12. "Trump administration approves plan to sell poor children for meat."

Watch it happen. Jesus $%@#$%@ Christ.

[SunSeeker]

13. They should sink a rig right in front of Mar-a-Lago.

[mr_lebowski]

14. Scotland And Ireland should plop Rigs right off the coast where Trump's golf resorts are ...

Big, honking, ugly ass ones. Directly in the line of site between tee and hole for as many holes as is possible.

Ones that don't even produce oil, they're just hideous eyesores.

[SpankMe]

15. States should consider laws that nullify offshore drilling

Laws at the state level that ban pipelines being built, or ban raw crude from being transported on state roads. They could do anything to interfere with the drilling operations. This is environmental war.

[lark]

16. WTF!

This will piss off all the coastal states, especially FL and CA with all their tourism put in jeopardy by his pandering to the oil industry. It
could also cost him the FL vote, even possibly GA, SC and NC since all of these are dependent on tourism. I rally hope he doesn't do it, despite that. The dolphin and egret population is still down dramatically from the BP oil disaster and I don't know that they can take another blow.

[raccoon]

18. Attention: Republicans who have coastal properties and voted for Trump!

You asked for it, you got it!

[Swallowtail]

19. How about starting off Mar A Lago?

[Cha]

22. Good idea

[red dog 1]

20. K&R...Thanks for posting

Every single day this evil bastard does something that is for either Wall Street, the Military-Industrial Complex, or big oil companies, and against the interests of the American people.

This asshole has to go!

(Mr. Mueller, please hurry up and issue more indictments)

[Cha]

21. Thank you for this, herding cats.

I hope there's someway to stop this marauding manic before it's too late.

[modrepub]

23. For A Business Man He Shows Little Understanding Of How Things Actually Work

Off-shore drilling is an extremely expensive proposition and is at best decades off. We're talking many, many Billions of $s in financing, infrastructure development and permitting. If it was actually profitable to do this it would have been done a long time ago. As it stands now I don't think any financial organization would take a chance on this without some kind of assurance the reserves are there to pay off the amount of money it would take to actually pump oil or gas from these areas.

In the end it's not going to be regulations that will kill the fossil fuel industry, it will be the economics.