The Obama administration treaded back into turbulent waters on Nov. 8, proposing its first national offshore drilling plan since last year's disastrous Gulf oil spill. Unveiled by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the new proposal would schedule 15 lease sales for 2012 through 2017, including 12 in the Gulf of Mexico and three off Alaska's coast. The plan is less ambitious than one President Obama presented just before the 2010 Gulf spill began, and as Salazar emphasized last week, it's a "cautious" move intended to boost domestic oil and gas production without sacrificing cultural and environmental treasures along the outer continental shelf (OCS). "Expanding...
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