Romney Energy Plan Would Expand Oil Drilling on U.S. Land and Offshore
Left, Luke Sharrett for The New York Times; right, Jim Wilson/The New York Times
President Obama, at a high
school in North Las Vegas on Wednesday, denounced Republican scrimping
on education. Mitt Romney, at an Iowa factory, assailed Mr. Obama over
the economy. More Photos »
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and ASHLEY PARKER
Published: August 22, 2012
The plan is bound to be contentious after the disastrous BP well blowout
in 2010, which leaked millions of barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico
and left 11 workers dead. The proposal may win votes in Virginia, where
drilling would bring jobs and state revenues, but would be controversial
in Florida, where offshore drilling has long been viewed as a threat to tourism.
The Romney campaign released the proposal, complete with a 21-page white
paper, Wednesday evening as part of an overall energy plan that
includes granting states more regulatory power over drilling on federal
lands, revitalizing the nuclear power industry, and approving the Keystone XL pipeline to carry more Canadian oil to refineries in the United States.
Romney campaign officials emphasized the importance of opening more oil
and gas drilling on federal lands, a theme that Mr. Romney is likely to
trumpet Thursday on his visit to New Mexico, where the oil industry
hopes to open more federal areas for exploration and production.
“What Governor Romney is proposing is that state governments, which
already control the development of energy resources on their own and
private lands within their borders, would also control the development
of energy resources on federal lands within their borders,” said Oren
Cass, the campaign’s domestic policy director, in a conference call with
reporters Wednesday.
The proposal will surely be controversial among environmentalists hoping
to preserve lands like desert stretches of New Mexico where threatened
species roam. A campaign document, however, said the proposal would
exclude “lands specially designated off-limits,” which presumably means
national parks.
The Obama campaign released a statement from Federico Peña, a secretary
of energy in the Clinton administration, criticizing Mr. Romney’s
emphasis on drilling: “We will never reach energy independence by
turning our backs on homegrown renewable energy and better auto
mileage.”
Mr. Romney has raised considerable money from donors with ties to the
oil industry. Over the past two days, he pulled in nearly $10 million in
oil money: $6 million to $7 million Tuesday from two fund-raisers in
Texas (in Houston and Midland), and $2 million at a fund-raiser
Wednesday in Little Rock, Ark. Claiborne P. Deming, who introduced Mr.
Romney at the Arkansas event and is a finance co-chairman in the state,
is chairman of Murphy Oil, a global gas and oil company.
Nearly two-thirds of federal lands are currently off-limits to drilling
and mining, and leasing has slowed in recent years. Oil production has
been declining on federal lands, while booming on private lands as well
as offshore.
The Obama administration has expanded offshore oil drilling in the Gulf
of Mexico and Alaska but barred development along the east and west
coasts. The administration appears to be on the verge of giving final
approval to Shell Oil to drill in the Alaskan Arctic for the first time
in two decades, but its decision to enact a one-year moratorium on gulf
drilling following the BP spill angered the oil industry.
Before the BP disaster, oil production in the gulf was 1.75 million
barrels a day, and it is now down to roughly 1.5 million barrels a day,
700,000 barrels below what had been projected for 2012. Still, gulf
production is rapidly ramping up again, and overall domestic oil
production is up 10 percent this year in a continuation of a three-year
trend.
Romney aides say the country could be doing much better.
“As a result of the president’s policies, energy prices are higher,
there are fewer jobs, our industries are less competitive, and family
budgets are further strained,” said Ed Gillespie, a campaign senior
adviser, on the conference call. “People who are living paycheck to
paycheck are struggling as a result of this anti-energy policy, paying
more for heating their homes and turning on their electricity, and
turning on the lights, as well as gas prices being up.”
Mr. Romney has said his policies would lead to independence from oil
imports from outside North America by 2021 Many energy experts say
expanded offshore drilling could be an important step in that direction,
but experts debate how much oil there is along the coasts.
Virginia politicians of both parties have strongly supported drilling
off the coast of a state that is pivotal to the election. But in
Florida, another swing state, politicians have generally opposed
drilling to protect the state’s beaches.
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