Obama expanding drilling off Alaska and in gulf

The Obama administration cautiously offered up more areas in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska’s coast to oil and gas drilling today, but didn’t go far enough to satisfy Republicans pushing to greatly expand drilling as a way to create jobs and wean the country off foreign oil. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled a proposal to hold 15 lease sales for areas in the Gulf of Mexico, including two in the eastern gulf, and three off Alaska’s coast; the sales would be held from 2012 to 2017. The drilling plans are the latest iteration of President Barack Obama’s strategy for energy production, which has continually shifted to account for political realities, high gasoline prices and environmental disasters, such as last year’s BP oil spill in the gulf. Weeks before that disaster began, the White House had talked of expanding drilling off Alaska’s coast, in the Atlantic and throughout the eastern gulf, in part to help move stalled climate-change legislation through Congress. It pulled back late last year after the blowout of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April 2010. Read the full story by The Associated Press here.