Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke Proposes Opening 73 Million Acres Of Gulf Coast Waters To Oil Drilling

March 7, 2017 News, Politics

The International Business Times reports:

The Department of the Interior announced Monday a proposal that would lease 73 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas exploration and development later this year, according to a statement. The massive amount of acreage, spread out across Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas’ shores, would first be put up for sale on Aug. 16 and it would also include “all available unleased areas in federal waters” in the gulf, the statement read.

“Opening more federal lands and waters to oil and gas drilling is a pillar of President Trump’s plan to make the United States energy independent,” Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said in a statement. “The Gulf is a vital part of that strategy to spur economic opportunities for industry, states, and local communities, to create jobs and home-grown energy and to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

More from the Daily Caller:



Zinke’s announcement came the same day as President Donald Trump congratulated ExxonMobil on its $20 billion investments in Gulf Coast states to boost its petrochemical refining operations. Exxon started making big investments in the region in 2013 and continue until 2022.

Exxon says its investment is creating more than 45,000 construction and manufacturing jobs with salaries ranging from $75,000 to $125,000. Exxon CEO Darren Woods said Trump’s agenda of deregulation “enhanced” his company’s investments.

Shortly before leaving office, former President Barack Obama locked up even more offshore areas from drilling, issuing an executive order in December making 31 canyons in the Atlantic off limits to drilling. The order took 3.8 million acres of the Atlantic ocean out of play for drillers. In that same order, Obama designated “the vast majority of U.S. waters in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas as indefinitely off limits to offshore oil and gas leasing.”

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