The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

Drilling off US southern Atlantic coast may be in the cards after all:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/us/politics/white-house-to-propose-allowing-oil-drilling-off-atlantic-coast.html

The Obama administration on Tuesday will announce a proposal to open up coastal waters from Virginia to Georgia for oil and gas drilling, according to a person briefed on the plan.

…Opening the Eastern Seaboard to oil companies is a prize the industry has sought for decades and is a blow to environmental groups.

…The plan is subject to months of public hearings, and could be revised, but it does not require congressional approval.

…Oil companies believe there is an energy bonanza beneath the Atlantic waters. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement estimates that there are 3.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil on the Atlantic’s outer continental shelf and 31.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The estimates are based on two-dimensional seismic surveys that were done in the early 1980s, and energy industry experts say the true reserves may be far higher.