President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of the interior nominee, Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), said he will consider restoring parts of an expired federal ban on offshore oil drilling, but told CNSNews.com that he has "no idea" how much of the drilling restrictions should be reimposed.
Salazar spoke to CNSNews.com outside his confirmation hearing in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources on Thursday.
Back in June, President George W. Bush lifted an 18-year-old executive order banning new offshore drilling that had been put in place by his father, President George H.W. Bush, and extended by President Bill Clinton.
At the end of September, Congress, which was in the midst of crafting a $700 billion financial bailout and facing nationwide pressure to lower gas prices and remove the ban, allowed a 26-year old moratorium of offshore oil drilling that had been annually attached to the Interior Department funding bill, to expire. A more recent moratorium on developing shale-oil lands, which are mostly in the west, also was allowed to expire.
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