Trump officials cast doubt on Zinke's Florida offshore drilling exemption

Source: The Hill

BY TIMOTHY CAMA - 01/19/18 12:15 PM EST

Trump administration officials have not yet decided whether to allow offshore drilling near Florida’s coasts, a key official said Friday, despite Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s statement otherwise. Walter Cruickshank, the acting director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), did not back up Zinke’s statement last week that Florida is off the table for drilling.

“The secretary’s decision stands for itself, and we have no formal decision yet on what’s in or out of the five-year program,” Cruickshank told Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) at the House Natural Resources Committee hearing. Cruickshank said his agency is still conducting numerous analyses on potential oil and natural gas drilling sites, including those near Florida.

“Until such time as all those analyses are complete and we have all those comments to put in the record and consider, we will not have any indication of where the secretary wants to go,” he earlier told Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.), who, along with most Florida lawmakers and Democrats, wants to prevent drilling from coming to waters near Florida.

Zinke’s statement exempting Florida, Cruickshank added, “is not a formal action.”

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/369743-offshore-drilling-official-zinkes-florida-exemption-was-not-a