The Hill: Oil industry slams ‘restrictive’ offshore drilling plan

The oil industry is criticizing the Obama administration’s offshore oil and gas drilling plan for closing off about 87 percent of the potential drilling areas.

While the main oil lobbying groups are glad that the Interior Department is planning to lease drilling rights on the southern Atlantic coast, they’re disappointed that the entire Pacific coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and much of the water around Alaska is still off-limits.

“Studies show we could create 840,000 new jobs and raise more than $200 billion for the government if oil and natural gas development is allowed in the Atlantic, Pacific and eastern Gulf of Mexico,” Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, told reporters Monday.

“By ignoring the latter two areas, the administration has already turned its back on most of those jobs.”

Read the full article from The Hill HERE