Thursday, May 6, 2010

Interior Suspends VA Lease Sale

Big News today as the Department of Interior has indefinitely suspended plans for an oil and gas lease sale off the Virginia coastline. The department postponed the comment period on the plan indefinitely and canceled a series of public meetings that had been scheduled for this month on the proposed lease sale.

In a notice to be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, the Minerals Management Service announces the suspension of the comment period on the proposed Virginia lease sale, known formally as Outer Continental Shelf Mid-Atlantic Oil and Gas Lease Sale 220. No further comments are being solicited, pending a decision by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, it says.

Could this be a prelude to reinstating the federal moratorium on new offshore oil drilling?

More details

2 comments:

Julie Lawson said...

The WaPost is now reporting that, while the meetings have been postponed, it doesn't necessarily mean that the lease sales will be delayed:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2010/05/interior_department_move_does.html

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