Feds plan to sell drilling rights off Va. coast

by CJaye | November 13, 2008 at 07:04 am

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I don't know if this is good or not. I have close friends that are commercial fisherman. This will be very very bad for them. 50 miles off shore is not that far and they fish there. What will it do to the waters there? A lot of questions to be answered. What about the commercial fisherman?

The public is getting an opportunity to weigh in on the idea of drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Virginia.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Interior Department launched a 45-day public comment period on its plan to sell drilling rights for about 2.9 million acres about 50 miles from shore.

Randall Luthi, director of the department's Minerals Management Service, says the sale could boost domestic production of oil and gas and reduce the country's reliance on foreign sources.

But the idea doesn't sit well with some environmental groups, the U.S. Navy and NASA.

The Virginia coast is estimated to contain 130 million barrels of oil and 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.