 Thanks to former Rep. Thelma Drake and State Senator Frank Wagner, may I present to you little lonely Virginia, all by itself on the Atlantic coast, poised and ready for lease sale as early as 2011.
It was actually under Gov. Mark Warner's administration that MMS was prompted by the infamous "Drilling Duo" to put Virginia in the 2007-2012 Five year plan. That action came mere months after both houses of the Virginia General Assembly passed (Feb. 2005) a Wagner bill (SB1054 Natural gas exploration, off-shore; exemption to existing moratorium.) Gov. Warner vetoed that bill (April 2005), but regardless, come Feb. 2006 we get the big announcement that Virginia has been put in the 5 Year plan. The train was already out of the station by the time Gov. Kaine signed Virginia's Energy Plan, which contains the exploration for natural gas only language, which he has repeatedly had to reiterate and reinforce with the Feds.
But it is a new day, new year, new administration. This time Gov. Kaine will be listened to.
In a letter dated Feb. 19, 2009, Kaine calls for the postponement of Virginia Lease Sale 220. "This Lease Sale is the only one currently proposed anywhere along the Atlantic seaboard," he writes.
"I believe that no lease sale should be conducted in the Atlantic until the process that you have outlined for the 5 Year Program [2010-2015] is complete."
Including Virginia in the same process used to study all other Atlantic offshore drilling, to include other offshore areas of Virginia, makes sense. Certainly, if MMS doesn't have enough information and studies to safely conduct any other lease sales in our area, they certainly does not know enough to conduct the FIRST lease sale.
Sen. Frank Wagner will be testifying tomorrow (Tues.) in a hearing before Chairman Nick Rahall's House Natural Resources Committee. This time, hopefully, Wagner won't again "misrepresent" the truth before Congress as he did in his congressional testimony in June 2007 where he spread the following "mistruths":
Mistruth #1: "Keeping Virginia in the five year program is consistent with the desire of the Virginia General Assembly".
Mistruth #2: "Virginia has adopted Renewable Portfolio Standards" (said in an attempt to trump Virginia's supposedly comprehensive energy plan and it's plans to include offshore oil and gas in those supposed plans).
The contact phone for this House Committee is (202) 225-6065. Available here is a live webcast of committee hearings. Check out Wagner tomorrow starting at 10am. |
