Obama wants to open offshore areas in Alaska, East Coast to oil, gas drilling

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural-gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday.

The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic-drilling advocates, but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a long-standing moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.

Under the plan, Washington state and much of the rest of the Pacific Coast, from Mexico to Canada, would remain closed to oil and gas activity. So would the coastline from New Jersey northward.

The environmentally sensitive Bristol Bay in southwestern Alaska would be designated as a sanctuary and no drilling would be allowed under the plan, officials said. But large tracts in the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska — nearly 130 million acres — would be eligible for exploration and drilling after extensive studies.

The proposal is to be announced on Wednesday, but administration officials agreed to preview the details on the condition that they not be identified.

The proposal is intended to reduce dependence on oil imports, generate revenue from the sale of offshore leases and help win support for comprehensive energy and climate legislation.

President Obama said during his campaign that he supported expanded offshore drilling. But the sheer breadth of the proposal will take some of his supporters aback.

The plan adopts some drilling proposals floated by President George W. Bush, including opening much of the Atlantic and Arctic coasts. Those proposals were challenged in court on environmental grounds and set aside by Obama shortly after he took office.

Unlike the Bush plan, however, Obama's proposal would put Bristol Bay, home to major Alaskan commercial fisheries and populations of endangered whales, off-limits to oil rigs.

Drilling in much of the newly opened areas, if it takes place, would not begin for years.

It is not known how much potential fuel lies in the areas; the Interior Department estimates there could be as much as a three-year supply of recoverable oil and more than two years' worth of natural gas, at current rates of consumption.