Houston Chronicle
Oct. 26, 2009
by Jennifer A. Dlouhy

Public comments

Separately, a conservative group on Monday prodded the Obama administration to reveal the breakdown of roughly half a million public comments that were filed about a Bush-era plan to open up broad offshore areas for oil and gas drilling.

The group American Solutions, headed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, made the push in a Freedom of Information Act request to the federal government.

At issue is a stalled Bush administration proposal to open up as many as 300 million acres off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil and gas drilling. After Interior Secretary Ken Salazar set an initial March 23 deadline for the public to weigh in on the draft plan, he extended the public comment period to Sept. 21.

2-to-1 margin?

In the written information request, Vince Haley of American Solutions said he believes that government workers “have confirmed” that comments supporting offshore drilling outnumbered anti-drilling comments by a 2-1 margin. That dovetails with public opinion polls showing most Americans favor more drilling in the outer continental shelf, he said.

A Minerals Management Service spokesman said the agency would provide a break- down after it had finished analyzing the submissions.

Haley said that a strong majority in favor of expanded coastal drilling would put pressure on the administration “to explain why they aren't moving forward.”

Salazar has suggested that the Interior Department could wait until the current plan governing outer continental shelf energy leases expires in 2012 before issuing a new one. The five-year plan proposed under former President George W. Bush would have covered leasing from 2010 through 2015 and would have opened up areas where drilling has been off-limits.

If the Bush plan survives at all, Obama administration officials have signaled it is likely to be sharply curtailed.