Virginia Off-Shore Drilling Off-Limits, says DoD report

Photo by John Arundel Rep. Jim Moran at last year's Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Jim Moran (D-8), the Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior and the Environment released new information Tuesday detailing the military’s objections to drilling in the area off Virginia’s coast known as “Lease Sale 220.”
 
The report, presented in a Department of Defense briefing with Moran, indicates that almost 80 percent of the proposed drilling area scheduled to be sold as part of the OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program 2007-2012 would infringe on US Navy operations.
 
Moran released a map summarizing the findings, along with a letter to Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) detailing the military’s concerns.
 
“The unimpeded operation of the US Navy off the coast of Virginia is far more important to the Commonwealth’s economy than even the most optimistic revenue estimates that might come from offshore drilling more than a decade from now,” Moran said.
 
Moranhas long argued that the military’s investment in the Tidewater area would be jeopardized by expanded commercial drilling in the Virginia Capes Operating Area.
 
In the past, the Navy and NASA have expressed concerns about drilling off the shore of Virginia. The document obtained by Moran details the first comprehensive DoD survey conducted on areas in the Virginia Capes, including Lease Sale 220, which could be opened to drilling as early as 2012.
 
Seventy-eight percent of the proposed Lease Sale 220 site overlaps with military operations which would be impeded by drilling structures and related activities. Most of the remaining area consists of major shipping lanes trafficked by commercial vessels and used by the Coast Guard.
 
According to the DoD report, Lease Sale 220 would either interfere or prohibit the Navy from conducting live ordnance tests, aircraft carrier qualifications, sensitive undersea and surface operations, shipboard qualification tests and other equipment testing and evaluation.
 
Virginia now hosts five US Navy aircraft carriers, but that figure could go down to three if one goes to the West Coast, as expected, and Virginia loses its battle to keep a second carrier from going to Mayport, Florida. Each carrier represents roughly $900 million in economic activity.
 
The Interior Department has suspended activities relating to Lease Sale 220 due to the BP blowout in the Gulf Coast. Yet the Interior Department continues to state that the suspension may not delay the eventual sale of the proposed Lease Sale 220 area.
 
Gov.McDonnell has touted offshore development as a solution to Virginia’s budget and transportation problems. But Moran has raised serious concerns that this funding is illusory:
 
“The Commonwealth needs a real transportation plan, based on real revenue, not pie in the sky estimates of revenues that wouldn’t be realized for a decade, if ever.”