Barton, industry groups slam White House oil drilling pullback

A senior Republican and several industry groups are bashing the White House’s decision to extend a ban on new deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, delay an offshore project in Alaska and cancel some upcoming lease sales.

The criticism highlights concerns among drilling supporters that the White House response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill could lead to lasting restrictions on offshore access.

“[N]ow is not the time to make long-term policy decisions that could severely impact our energy security for decades to come,” said Karen Alderman Harbert, CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“I think putting our drilling programs in those areas in a deep freeze is exactly the wrong approach. All we’re going to do is cause unemployment and cause the price of oil to go up, which is going to hurt our economy even more,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

The White House is pulling back on allowing new exploratory drilling as it reviews offshore safety and environmental safeguards.

“An extended moratorium on safely producing our oil and natural gas resources from the Gulf of Mexico would create a moratorium on economic growth and job creation — especially in the Gulf States whose people and economies have already been most affected by the oil spill — by undercutting our nation’s access to affordable, reliable, domestic sources of oil and natural gas,” said Jack Gerard, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.

But environmental groups and some Democrats cheered the actions while calling for even more aggressive measures.

“President Obama took an important step today to halt the most imminent environmental threat to the Atlantic coast. However, the danger will remain until drilling in the Atlantic is taken off the table altogether,” said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) in response to cancellation of the planned 2012 sale of leases off Virginia’s coast.

The Wilderness Society applauded the decision not to allow Royal Dutch Shell to begin exploratory drilling in Arctic waters off Alaska’s coast this summer. The project will be put off until at least 2011.

“The decision to halt drilling is a victory for the Arctic ocean, for coastal ecosystems and for the native communities and wildlife that depend on them,” said Wilderness Society President William H. Meadows.