Drilling plan gets slammed by N.J.

Twelve members of New Jersey's congressional delegation wrote to President Bush on Friday opposing his administration's proposal to allow oil and natural gas drilling off the Virginia coast.

The five-year plan, which Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced Monday, seeks to expand drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and proposes to sell leases to drill off Virginia in late 2011.

In their letter, Garden State lawmakers accused the Minerals Management Service, an arm of the Interior Department, of "glibly" ignoring New Jersey's concerns about ecological and economic damage the state could incur if drilling is allowed off Virginia's coast.

"MMS itself estimates that the amount of technically recoverable oil . . . would last only between 17 to 41 days, and the amount of technically recoverable gas would last only three months. To put our beaches, our fishing, and our tourism economy at risk for such minimal resources is short-sighted and unacceptable," they wrote. "The Minerals Management Service has ignored our serious concerns and the will of Congress."

The letter asks Bush to instruct Kempthorne to remove Virginia from the proposal.

Reps. Albio Sires, D-Hoboken, and Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, and Donald Payne, D-Newark, didn't sign the letter. An aide to Sires said she was trying to find out why. Garrett was traveling and couldn't be reached for comment. An aide to Payne said she neglected to attach the congressman's name to the letter and that he opposes drilling off the Atlantic coast.

The White House didn't return a telephone message seeking comment.

Kempthorne said he included Virginia at the state's request. However oil and gas exploration can't take place until Congress and the White House lift drilling bans for the Atlantic Coast, which have been in place for 25 years.

New Jersey lawmakers have said the closest point in the proposed drilling area is less than 100 miles from the South Jersey shore.

Gary Strasburg, spokesman for the Minerals Management Service, said the agency made a "special effort" to listen to New Jersey's concerns at an Atlantic City public hearing in November.

Before drilling could begin in the mid-Atlantic, the government would conduct environmental studies and take other steps to minimize ecological and economic harm, he said.

Source : www.courierpostonline.com