Drilling plan falls short on natural gas

The chemical industry says the Bush Administration's plan to open 2 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to new energy development is "insufficient" because it would not boost natural gas supplies enough to reduce prices and prevent the further loss of jobs. The Minerals Management Service's (MMS) proposed 2007-12 leasing plan for the outer continental shelf would open a major piece of the so-called Lease Sale 181 area south of the Florida panhandle to oil and gas drilling. The section contains an estimated 3.4 trillion cu ft of natural gas. The draft plan also calls for new studies of resource development off the coasts of Virginia and Alaska. "The MMS proposal is an insufficient response to the nation's natural gas needs," the American Chemistry Council (ACC) said in a statement. "Policymakers have continually failed to acknowledge and correct the acute demand-supply imbalance, driving prices up to levels that are causing massive industrial demand destruction." ACC said the MMS proposal will ensure that the U.S. "continues to have an inadequate supply of gas, leading to even higher deficits, more manufacturing moving offshore, and the disappearance of good-paying American jobs."