Salazar slows offshore drilling plan

WASHINGTON -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday a Bush administration plan to open new offshore areas to oil and gas drilling would be delayed until September and likely will be changed considerably to limit new production.

On Jan. 20, the Bush administration's last day in office, it released a new five-year plan for offshore oil and natural gas lease sales that opened up new areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico as well as several sites off the Atlantic, Pacific and Alaskan coastlines.

Salazar said Tuesday he plans to extend the public comment period on the plan, which would have expired in March. The 180-day extension will last until late September to give environmentalists, governors and others more time to weigh in on the plan.

"We will give all good ideas consideration," Salazar said.

Salazar also said the Interior Department will use the extra time to develop a "framework" for determining the potential for wind, wave and ocean-current energy in offshore areas.

"The Bush administration was so intent on opening new areas for oil and gas offshore that it torpedoed offshore renewable energy efforts," Salazar said.

Oil and gas producers objected to the delay, "especially at a time when our economy is struggling, unemployment is rising and state treasuries are suffering," said Barry Russell, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Salazar said the Obama administration will issue a report in 45 days on known and possible oil and natural gas deposits along the Atlantic coastline from Maine to Florida.

"Our data on available resources is very thin, and what little we have is 20 to 30 years old," he said. "We shouldn't make decisions to sell off taxpayer resources based on old information."