News - National
Obama to allow oil drilling off Virginia coast
Posted: Mar 31, 2010 7:31 AM by Associated Press
Updated: Mar 31, 2010 7:31 AM
President Barack Obama plans to announce that the government will allow oil drilling 50 miles off Virginia's shoreline but will reject some proposed drilling sites in Alaska.
Obama scheduled an announcement Wednesday at Andrews air base near Washington. In the speech, he was set to discuss why he is changing the policy, more than 20 years old, that bans most offshore drilling except in the Gulf of Mexico.
The president also is set to announce that proposed oil leases in Alaska's Bristol Bay will be canceled. The Interior Department is reversing last year's decision to open up parts of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
Obama's plan will leave in place the drilling moratorium off the West Coast.
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