Feds to hold public offshore drilling meeting Thursday in Norfolk

You have the chance Thursday to make known your opinion on the state and federal government's plan to explore for oil and natural gas off Virginia's coast.

The Interior Department, which regulates offshore drilling through its Minerals Management Service, will host public hearings at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Hilton Norfolk Airport, 1500 N. Military Highway, Norfolk.

The hearings come after President Barack Obama reversed a decades long ban on Atlantic Coast drilling. Obama says oil and gas from under the Atlantic will help reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil and, in turn, increase national security.

Virginia is in line to become the first Atlantic state to allow drilling. A lease sale of a 2.9-million-acre zone located 50 miles off the coast could occur as early as next year. The plan enjoys bi-partisan support; Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, the General Assembly, and Democratic Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner, all favor drilling.

But numerous groups, including NASA and the Navy, said offshore drilling could interfere with their operations. Environmental activists also oppose it saying spills could be devastating to sensitive ecological areas and the tourist-based beach economies of the coast.

http://weblogs.dailypress.com/news/science/dead_rise/2010/04/feds_hold_offshore_drilling_me.html

And Obama is apparently all about "developing our natural resources" including offshore oil(see the gulf today burning) and nukes (never have been cost effective, always need govt money to make their "profits") IF we are going to subsidize energy companies to the extent Nukes are - we should have them as govt entities. Let their "profits" roll back into operating costs and give the taxpayers who financed them lower cost power.