by Tim Wheeler

The debate about offshore oil exploration has landed nearly in Maryland's backyard.  The Department of Interior today took the first step towards allowing drilling in the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia coast - just a little more than 50 miles from Maryland's shore. 

The agency announced it would seek expressions of interest in the 4,500-acre tract, with an eye to leasing it in 2011 if it passes an environmental impact review.  Federal geologists estimate the area may contain as much as 130 million barrels of oil and 1.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.  For more on the proposal, go here. [1]

The offshore opening was created a few months ago in the midst of the nation's energy price fever, when President Bush and Congress collaborated to lift a longstanding ban on new drilling off the nation's coasts.

But the announcement drew immediate criticism from environmentalists, who questioned the location and the timing.

"This would be 50 miles off the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay,'' pointed out Michael Gravitz of Environment America [2].  A catastrophic oil spill might wash into the bay, fouling wetlands and wildlife in the already struggling estuary.  He also warned that ocean currents could carry any contaminants northward to Ocean City and the Delaware beaches.  At risk, he said, would be the bay's beleagured crabs, Assateague Island's picturesque wild ponies and the mid-Atlantic's popular vacation resorts. 

The risk makes little sense, Gravitz added, when you consider that all the oil and gas the federal government estimates might be found there over the 30-year life of the lease would only be enough to supply the nation's needs for a week or two at most.

He and others also pointed out that this move to boost offshore drilling by the Bush administration could easily be reversed by the incoming Democratic team.  When gas prices were at their peak in late summer, Obama backed limited offshore drilling, but not as much as the McCain-Palin ticket advocated.

"It does seem they're in a bit of a rush to move this forward,'' said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.