Is Secretary Salazar Withholding Evidence That Americans Want to Drill Offshore by a 2:1 Margin?

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — American Solutions filed today a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the Department of the Interior (DOI), requesting documents pertaining to the tabulated results of the recent public comment period for DOI’s five-year energy plan for offshore oil and gas drilling.

American Solutions sources have indicated that MMS staff has confirmed that the comments have been tabulated internally and those comments in support of offshore drilling outnumber anti-drilling comments by a 2-1 margin. As of this writing, there has not been a public announcement of these final results. American Solutions alone delivered 90,358 pro-drilling comments, one of the largest sums for a single organization.

In May, during a discussion about offshore exploration in San Francisco, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that President Obama directed him to “to make sure that we have an open and transparent government” and that “these are not decisions that are going to be made behind closed doors.” Salazar went on to say that the DOI was “maximizing the opportunity for the public to give us guidance on what it is that they want to do.”

“It’s time for Secretary Salazar to live up to President Obama’s promise of openness and transparency and release the final number of comments, pro and con,” said Vince Haley, Vice President for Policy at American Solutions. “The American people deserve to know whether an overwhelming majority of Americans support more drilling for American energy offshore. If the Secretary is stalling on releasing these tabulations, it begs the question: What does he have to hide?”

The FOIA request asks for eight specific items, including the public comment totals, the proposed method of disclosing the comment totals, correspondence between senior MMS and Interior Department officials, and any documents related to the environmental and legal impacts of the proposed five-year energy plan.

“It defies commonsense that the Senate is starting hearings this week on the Boxer-Kerry cap and trade energy tax bill that will kill jobs, while at the same time Secretary Salazar is failing to disclose what is likely to be overwhelming American support for the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs through greater offshore development,” Haley said.

A full copy of the FOIA request can be downloaded by clicking here.

SOURCE American Solutions for Winning the Future