By Tom Doggett and Ayesha Rascoe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday extended by 180 days the public comment period on a 5-year proposal to expand offshore oil and natural gas drilling.
The Bush administration had drawn up an expanded offshore drilling plan during the final days of its term, setting a 60-day comment period for the proposal.
New U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he would add another 180 days for public comment, providing a total of 240 days to review the drilling plan through this September.
"To establish an orderly process that allows us to make wise decisions based on sound information, we need to set aside the Bush administration's midnight timetable for its (offshore) drilling plan and create our own timeline," Salazar said.
"The additional time we are providing will give states, stakeholders and affected communities the opportunity to provide input on the future of our offshore areas," he said.
"The additional time will allow us to restore an orderly process to our offshore energy planning," Salazar added.
Until then, he said, the department will follow the current 5-year offshore drilling plan that runs through 2012.
Salazar also said the department would build a framework to develop offshore renewable energy resources, such as wind, wave and ocean currents.
"The Bush Administration was so intent on opening new areas for oil and gas offshore that it torpedoed offshore renewable energy efforts," he said.
"I intend to issue a final rule-making for offshore renewables in the coming months, so that potential developers know the rules of the road," he said.
The Bush plan, in part, called for drilling along the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Florida, based on 20- to 30-year-old data on available oil and gas resources.
Salazar directed the U.S. Geological Survey and the Minerals Management Service to pull together all data within 45 days on offshore resources -- both conventional oil and gas and renewables -- along with information about the possible impacts of drilling.
"We shouldn't make decisions to sell off taxpayer resources based on old information," he said.
Based on that report, Salazar said, the department will determine what offshore areas need more information and create a plan for gathering that data.
The department oversees more than 1.7 billion offshore acres, an area equal to about three-fourths the size of the entire United States.
(Reporting by Tom Doggett and Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Walter Bagley)
