Obama won't allow drilling off Atlantic, Florida

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration will announce on Wednesday that it will not allow drilling off the Atlantic Coast or off Florida in the eastern Gulf of Mexico as part of a new plan running from 2012 to 2017, an administration official told Reuters.

The new drilling plan reverses President Barack Obama's pledge made last spring just before the BP oil spill to open areas to energy exploration off Florida and the Atlantic Coast, including Virginia waters.

Back in March, the administration said energy companies would be able to explore off the Atlantic Coast from Delaware to Florida and 125 miles beyond Florida's shore in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

While the new drilling policy is likely to please environmentalists that are a large part of Obama's political base, Republican lawmakers and oil companies are likely to slam the decision.

The move could find support from coastal lawmakers, with concern still lingering over offshore drilling since BP's massive spill earlier this year.

Republican lawmakers, who will take control of the House of Representatives in the new Congress, have promised to investigate the administration's offshore drilling policy and press the White House to support traditional energy sources like oil, coal and nuclear, instead of focusing on renewable energy like wind and solar power.

"This plan to lock-up vast portions of America's offshore energy resources is short-sighted and will lead to long-term job impacts, economic harm and increased reliance on foreign energy from dangerous and hostile countries," said Representative Doc Hastings, the expected new Republican chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress.

Hastings said the administration is taking the wrong approach in responding to the BP oil spill by blocking new offshore areas to drilling.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a loud critic of the administration's energy policy, called the White House move "a major step backward" for America's energy future.

The administration's reversal will also forgo billions of dollars in bonus bids that oil companies would have paid to lease tracts off the Atlantic Coast and Florida, which could have been used to help balance the federal budget, Kish added.

The administration also will not lease any tracts off the Alaska coast until 2012 as part of the five-year drilling plan, the official said.

(Reporting by Tom Doggett; additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Marguerita Choy)