Offshore, Off-limits
Monday, December 11, 2006
By William F. Jasper
The current Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) energy dilemma can be traced back to a series of actions begun by Congress in 1982 to stop the federal Department of Interior from issuing leases for coastal energy development by cutting off
appropriations needed to carry out the leasing program. This effectively put 85 percent of the OCS — virtually everything but the western and central Gulf of Mexico — off-limits to development. This lock-up of our desperately needed resources has been a
standard feature of the annual Interior Department appropriation ever since.
Not content with this congressional obstruction of our nation's access to energy, the executive branch decided to pile on as well. In 1990, President George Bush (the senior) declared a moratorium prohibiting oil and gas leasing and drilling in "environmentally sensitive areas" — about 99 percent of the California coast, most of Florida's gulf coast, the
Georges Bank, and areas off Oregon and Washington — until after the year 2000. In 1998, President Bill Clinton extended the
moratorium through 2012. Thus, responsibility for our present predicament can be laid at the feet both of Republicans and Democrats, Congress and the White House.
President Bush and the congressional GOP leadership have made a show over the past six years of trying to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska for environmentally safe oil and gas drilling. That has been the president's
"number one" energy priority. However, he has never gone to the mat on this issue and used the full weight of his office, as he has done on pushing, for instance, for his federal prescription drug plan or the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Even after the 2004 elections gave him a 55-44 Republican majority in the Senate and $3-a-gallon gasoline gave him strong public support, Bush failed to aggressively push for freeing our ANWR energy resources. Now, in the new Democrat-controlled Congress, opening ANWR is a dead issue.
However, the president could still unilaterally open up some OCS exploration and development by simply canceling the executive moratorium put in place by his father and President Clinton. He has had the power to do that for the past six years, but has not done so. Nor is he likely to do so in his remaining two years. And even if he did remove the moratorium, the next president may reimpose it. Thus the need for the DOER Act, say supporters.
Readers are encouraged to contact their U.S. representative and senators in support of the House-passed DOER Act, rather than the weaker Senate version. To send a letter electronically, go to http://capwiz.com/jbs/issues/alert/?alertid=9183546&type=CO
William F. Jasper joined the staff of The John Birch Society in 1976 as a researcher and soon became a contributing editor to the Society's magazines, American Opinion and The Review of the News. When those publications merged in 1985 to become THE NEW AMERICAN, Mr. Jasper continued to serve as a writer and contributing editor until 1990, when he was promoted to the position of Senior Editor.
Over the past three decades, William Jasper has researched and written extensively on foreign and domestic politics, national security, education, immigration, constitutional issues, the culture war, and most notably, the United Nations. His renown as an investigative journalist and insightful analyst on a wide array of topics has made William Jasper a frequent and highly sought guest on many radio and television programs.
He is the author of the 2001 book, The United Nations Exposed and the 1992 book, Global Tyranny-Step by Step: The United Nations and the Emerging New World Order. Both books were praised by many as the most authoritative and detailed expose' of the UN ever written. Mr. Jasper's coverage of UN events has included attendance at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the UN 50th Anniversary Founding celebration in San Francisco, the July 1998 UN Summit on the International Criminal Court in Rome, and the UN Millennium Summit in New York City during September 2000.
Born in Madison, Wisconsin, William Jasper grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is a graduate of the University of Idaho. Mr. Jasper receives critical support from his wife Carmen and their two sons.
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