The US Department of Defense released a report noting that the expansion of oil drilling in Gulf of Mexico would raise obstacles to the US military testing. This can be avoided if the Pentagon and other agencies develop rules to govern the work.
The Defense Department said that drilling east of the Military Mission Line in the Gulf of Mexico, would harm military testing operations without the rules.
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In order to mitigate this issue, a collaboration between the Department of Defense and Interior will ensure that military training and expanded American oil production can coexist, Erik Milito, a director of upstream operations at the American Petroleum Institute, was cited as saying by Reuters.
America’s Offshore Energy Industry welcomed the report, saying that:
[the report] not only provides a template for future coordination and consultation between the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of the Interior (DOI), but also is a starting point for a productive and cooperative relationship between the offshore energy industry and DOD.
The government of USA has announced that it will develop the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (National OCS Program) for 2019-2024.
According to the US government, this program proposes to make over 90% of the total OCS acreage and more than 98% of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in federal offshore areas available to consider for future exploration and development.
In January, Florida was excluded from the US plan to further exploit offshore oil and gas. With a published statement, Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the US Department of the Interior, explained that the decision to exempt Florida from the offshore oil and gas exploitation proposal, was made after Florida’s Governor, Rick Scott, request.
More recently, New York’s Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the ‘Save Our Waters’ bill. This bill aims to prohibit the leasing of lands, including underwater lands, for offshore drilling and exploration, and drilling infrastructure in New York State waters.
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