The chief US regulator for offshore energy, Tommy Beaudreau, Wednesday said he was working with the Department of Defense to resolve conflicts with the military so that parts of the Virginia Coast might someday be open to oil and natural gas exploration.
The military has objected to exploration along 80% of the Virginia Coast, homebase to the Navy's 2nd Fleet in Norfolk, among other military installations.
The Obama administration has previously pointed to the military's objections to any development off the Virginia Coast as a major reason for striking the East Coast from its oil and gas leasing agenda for 2012-17. This included Lease Sale 220 offshore Virginia that the White House originally supported.
Beaudreau, director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, gave more details about those concerns Wednesday and said he was encouraged by the military's willingness to work through them.
"They provided a map that essentially said, 'We don't believe any oil and gas activity should happen in areas that they colored red. We don't think there should be permanent facilities that areas they colored orange,'" Beaudreau told reporters. "Together those areas covered almost 80% of the sale 220 area, but for a very narrow strip. That to me says we have some work to do with DOD around whether and where any leasing offshore Virginia should take place."
Beaudreau said the military cited "significant live fire vessel exercise, air-to-surface weapon deployments and submarine warfare activity -- not anything I'd want to be on a [mobile offshore drilling unit] and have going on around me."
The response did not satisfy some of the panel's Republican members, who charged the White House with using the military as convenient cover for scuttling plans for East Coast drilling.
"From what we see out of this administration, it appears that they're really wanting to handcuff or hold the reins back on American energy independence," said Representative Jeff Duncan, Republican-South Carolina.
Representative Bill Flores, Republican-Texas, asked Beaudreau whether he was having substantive discussions with the military to resolve the conflicts.
"Or did you say, 'OK, we buried this baby for five years. We don't have to worry about it,'" Flores asked.
Beaudreau insisted that he met personally with Pentagon leaders and would work to find a solution. He declined to predict whether it might take a few years or 10.
"It will require creative thinking on both parties," he said. "The Department of Defense has been cooperating with us. They really have been. They have legitimate needs, legitimate concerns. But they're not putting us off."
