Tags: Obama, Offshore drilling, Oil and gas law in the United States
President Obama has a chance to significantly tie the hands of his successor and his or her energy policy with the upcoming five-year plan for offshore drilling leases.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), part of the Interior Department, is likely in January or February to move forward on setting a schedule for lease sales for offshore oil and natural gas drilling rights, and to put the finishing touches on it later in the year.
The program will cover 2017 to 2022, and only lease sales scheduled in the plan can take place.
The most contentious provisions of the plan, whose first draft was released in early 2015, are the proposals to allow offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time ever and to sell more drilling rights in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska.
Given the significant resource potential and the possible environmental and climate impacts of drilling, along with the long time period the plan covers, Obama’s under great pressure from greens and industry to get the program right.
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