US Misses Deadline for Offshore Drilling Study

Share On Facebook Published: February 26th, 2010 by Mike

By Siobhan Hughes
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–The Obama administration failed to meet a deadline for submitting a court-ordered analysis of the environmental effects of offering new leases to drill in Alaskan coastal waters, the oil industry said Thursday.

A federal appeals court last year had invalidated the Interior Department’s current five-year plan for offering oil and gas leases, saying that the government hadn’t conducted an adequate review of the environmental impact in the Beaufort, Bering and Chukchi seas off the Alaskan coast. The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service has been conducting such a review and is supposed to respond to the court.

“We are disappointed MMS has again missed a deadline to provide the court with the analysis it ordered last April,” Jack Gerard, the chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement. “This will delay investment decisions, delay the production of much-needed oil and natural gas and delay the creation of much-needed jobs.”

An Interior Department spokeswoman wasn’t immediately available for comment.

-By Siobhan Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6654; Siobhan.Hughes@dowjones.com

Topic: Offshore

Tags: · offshore_oil_exploration

This Article Was Written By Mike
After graduating the Catholic University of America in 2005 with a B.S.B.A. in Finance, Mike went on to Tahoe to help with the launch of gCaptain's sister site, UnofficialSquaw.com. In June of 2008 Mike joined gCaptain.com as the first full-time employee in charge of sales and marketing and the day-to-day operations of gCaptain.com and Unofficial Networks, LLC.