Democrats Pushing for More Offshore Drilling

I'll bet you had to read that headline twice to make sure you got it right. I had to check the story myself a time or two:

Yesterday, Senators Jim Webb (D-VA) and Mark Warner (D-VA) wrote a stinging letter to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar over his most recent delay on offshore drilling, this time for an area off the coast of Virginia estimated to have 130 million barrels of oil and over one trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The announcement of delay against which the Virginia Senators are arguing came from the Minerals Management Service in a meeting that was behind closed doors and off limits to the press.

The letter represents a broader bipartisan push against the Department of Interior's delays: then-Governor-elect Bob McDonnell (R) wrote last month to Salazar to keep the current offshore drilling plan for Virginia on track for 2011.

Salazar, meanwhile, says that he will determine this summer if the lease plan for Virginia, known as Lease Sale 220, will go forward or not.

Offshore drilling in this area is estimated to create thousands of new jobs for Virginians, as well as generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new state revenues.

With both senators from Virginia and the commonwealth's own governor now pushing back against what has sadly become a recurring, anti-energy trend within the Department of Interior, and as we await the information from our latest FOIA request, pressure is certainly mounting against this perpetual bureaucratic delay.

This administration has no interest whatsoever in opening up domestic sources of energy. They'd prefer to keep us dependent on foreign sources so we'll be forced to follow their "alternative energy" nonsense.

Besides that, some sea turtle might be inconvenienced and we can't have that, can we.