Obama administration closes off Atlantic to oil and gas drilling in policy reversal

In a policy reversal that is being met with praise from environmentalists, the Obama administration said Tuesday it will not allow oil drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell made the announcement on Twitter, declaring that the administration's next five-year offshore drilling plan "protects the Atlantic for future generations."

The drilling plan announced Tuesday covers potential lease sales from 2017 to 2022 and calls for leasing 10 areas in the Gulf of Mexico and the potential leasing of three sites off the Alaska coast.

In deciding to close off proposed Atlantic drilling sites for the next five years, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell cited market dynamics, opposition from coastal states as well as potential conflicts with military uses. 

“We heard from many corners that now is not the time to offer oil and gas leasing off the Atlantic coast,” Jewell said in a statement. “When you factor in conflicts with national defense, economic activities such as fishing and tourism, and opposition from many local communities, it simply doesn’t make sense to move forward with any lease sales in the coming five years.”

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The decision to block Atlantic drilling reverses a proposal made last year in which the administration floated a plan that would have opened up a broad swath of the Atlantic Coast to drilling. The January 2015 proposal would have opened up sites more than 50 miles, or 80 kilometers, off Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia to oil drilling starting no sooner than 2021.

The Interior Department said the latest decision responds to strong local opposition and conflicts with competing commercial and military ocean uses.

The Pentagon said Atlantic offshore drilling could hurt military maneuvers and interfere with missile tests the Navy relies on to protect the East Coast.

Environmental groups also opposed Atlantic drilling and had organized protests and petitions in affected states.

"President Obama has taken a giant step for our oceans, for coastal economies and for mitigating climate change," said Jacqueline Savitz, vice president of Oceana, an environmental group. "This is a victory for people over politics and shows the importance of old-fashioned grassroots organizing."

Virginia Senator and former governor Tim Kaine reacted to the announcement with puzzlement, saying the military had not previously raised such vociferous objections to offshore drilling near Virginia, which is the site of the world's largest Navy base in Norfolk. 

"I look forward to additional discussions with DOD to understand its position,” he said in a statement, using the acronym for the Defense Department.

The Atlantic drilling plan does not raise climate change concerns, although the administration did take that into account in its rejection of a permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline in November 2015. 

Environmental groups are making the need to keep fossil fuels in the ground, rather than extracting and burning such resources and adding to human-caused global warming, a signature issue for the rest of the Obama presidency and beyond.

"The administration clearly knows deep down that any major new fossil fuel extraction is incompatible with their climate goals," said Jamie Henn, a spokesman for 350.org. "When the administration rejected Keystone XL based on its climate impact, that set a precedent that they must now apply to all other energy decisions. They won't get it right every time, but it gives us a new hook to hold them and the next President to account."

Additional reporting by the Associated Press.