Earlier this week Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar rejected the last minute (literally) plan for offshore drilling submitted by the Bush administration on January 16th, their last official day of business.
The plan called for only 60 days of public comment and review, and did not seek to consolidate or update information on the resources available on the outer continental shelf. Much of the data currently available is “thin” and “twenty to thirty years” old, said Salazar
Secretary Salazar will add 180 days to the public comment period and call on the U.S. Geological Survey and other government scientists to gather all current information available on the OCS to determine where gaps are in the resource data and to formulate a plan to fill those information gaps. Renewable resources such as wind, wave, and ocean current energy will be part of any offshore drilling plan going forth.
For more details on the story, read my recent article published on the blog Red, Green, and Blue
