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Pentagon wants to restrict drilling off Virginia
Published: May 19, 2010
Drilling for oil and natural gas off the coast of Virginia could interfere with naval operations, a Defense Department review has concluded.
Dealing a further blow to Gov. Bob McDonnell?s plan to drill off the coast to raise revenues for transportation, the review concludes that only 22 percent of the ocean bottom that Virginia has proposed for drilling should be open to unrestricted drilling.
Seventy-two percent should bar all oil and gas activity, according to the report prepared by the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Readiness, the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment and the office of the director, operational test and evaluation.
Norfolk is home to the world?s largest naval base.
Word of the review comes after the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico already called drilling into doubt.
Tucker Martin, McDonnell?s director of communications, said ?we are confident that offshore energy production and the United States military can co-exist in Virginia without any disruption or unwanted intrusion upon either.?
Martin said ?this administration is in constant contact with the U.S. military on this matter. The U.S. military is a critical part of the commonwealth?s culture and economy, and their operations in the commonwealth are vital to our security.?
But the report says drilling in most areas off the coast could disrupt gunnery exercises, carrier qualifications, sensitive undersea and surface operations, shipboard systems qualification trials and development and testing activities.
Nicolette Nye, a spokeswoman for the National Ocean Industries Association, an industry trade group, held out the hope that drilling could go forward in the 22 percent of the area that the Navy says can be unrestricted, if seismic tests and environmental studies show that oil is in that area.
Virginia was in line to become the first Atlantic state to allow drilling. McDonnell had hoped a lease sale in the 4,500-acre tract at least 50 miles off the coast could take place in 2012. He hoped to plow proceeds from the lease sale into transportation.
But after the Gulf of Mexico spill, the Minerals Management Service postponed public hearings on the Virginia lease sale.
The General Assembly in 2010 authorized the development of oil and natural gas 50 miles off the coast, but only after ?taking into account the impact on affected localities, armed forces and the mid-Atlantic regional spaceport.?
Tyler Whitley writes for The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Re: Pentagon wants to restrict drilling off Virginia
The Navy is good for the environment for once!
Haha, great irony.
Kind of like DoD looking into the poor state of school nutrition because too many potential recruits are fat and out of shape.