While the Obama administration last Tuesday proposed only a “modest expansion” of nation’s offshore drilling program for the next five years (see Daily GPI, Nov. 9), the United States’ neighbors — Cuba, Mexico, the Bahamas, Canada and Russia — are aggressively moving ahead on offshore development adjacent to U.S. borders, warned Sen. Lisa Murkowski Monday.

“Each of those nations has weighed the economic benefits of offshore production against the potential environmental risks. All five have decided it is in their best interest to proceed,” she wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

“Mexico is advancing on a deepwater well only 22 miles from U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Before the year’s end, Cuba is scheduled to be drilling 60 miles from Key West, and the Bahamas are proceeding with leases not much farther away. Canada is actively drilling projects not far from Maine’s coastline and proceeding towards development in the Beaufort Seas, just east of Alaskan waters. Along Alaska’s western boundary, Russia is aggressively moving into the Arctic Ocean, with exploration at the very edge of the boundary of Alaskan waters,” Murkowski said.

“In a few years the U.S. could wind up in a very regrettable position — exposed to all of the risks of offshore development but with no control and none of the rewards. Imagine that foreign development is not done to our standards and a spill occurs.”

“We face a stark choice. We can sit between active drilling operations in neighboring countries, complaining that it’s too risky to develop our own resources while the world around us does exactly that.” Or the U.S. can lead on offshore development — “not only so that we can show others how it’s done, but also to ensure our own protection and prosperity,” Murkowski said.

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