The Obama Administration will announce today a proposal to allow oil and gas drilling in coastal waters from Virginia to Georgia. Via the New York Times, the White House is also expected to ban drilling in some portions of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.
A study released in September by the Interstate Policy Alliance revealed offshore oil and gas drilling could bring up to $60 billion in economic value to coastal states. That would dwarf the $19 billion in environmental impact costs some have estimated.
The federal government estimates that there are 3.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 31.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas on the Atlantic’s outer continental shelf.
