Plans for selling oil and gas drilling rights in the waters off Virginia apparently will not be changed by the Obama team.
According to The Virginian-Pilot, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said he would not intervene in a planned sale of exploration and drilling rights in Atlantic waters at least 50 miles off the Virginia coast .
However, Salazar also said he was ordering a new study by federal scientists that would weigh the potential economic benefits against the environmental risks of offshore drilling. Such research “may alter” those Virginia plans.
