By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Wednesday it will not allow drilling in Atlantic Coast waters or off Florida's Gulf shoreline as part of a new five-year offshore energy exploration plan.
The 2012-2017 drilling plan reverses President Barack Obama's pledge made last spring to open up more offshore tracks, but the move would not be seen as a surprise given the administration's new concern over offshore exploration since BP's massive oil spill earlier this year.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the Deepwater Horizon oil spill showed that the administration needed "to proceed with caution" on offshore drilling.
"The changes that we are making today really are based on the lessons that we have been learning," Salazar said.
Salazar said there would be little impact on future U.S. energy supplies, as companies could focus on developing the oil and gas resources held under the 29 million acres (12 million hectares) in the Gulf of Mexico already leased but not yet explored.
"There's plenty of opportunity for oil and gas companies to go out and develop these additional resources," he said.
The administration said back in March 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.
The decision doesn't affect any immediate government supply projections as oil companies would have had to launch multi-year exploration programs to find sufficient oil and gas reserves to justify the multibillion dollar investment to bring a field to commercial production.
The drilling policy will be cheered by environmentalists and voters in key states such as Florida, a large part of the political base for Obama, who now faces the countdown to his 2012 re-election bid.
Some East Coast and Florida lawmakers were quick to back the White House on the move.
"Just one accident could ruin Florida's tourism economy and our unique environment, not to mention the Everglades," said Democratic Senator Bill Nelson of Florida. "I'm glad the White House is listening to the people of Florida, and has decided not to allow any new drilling in the eastern Gulf."
Republicans, 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 instead of focusing on renewable energy.
"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.
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 that oil companies would have paid to lease new offshore tracts, which could have been used to help balance the federal budget.
The administration also will not lease any tracts off the Alaska coast until 2012 as part of the five-year drilling plan, the Interior Department said.
(Reporting by Tom Doggett; additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Russell Blinch)