The Trump Administration has offered to open more than 90 percent of the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for consideration of future exploration and development. The proposal is in stark contrast to the current lease sale program that puts 94 percent of the shelf off limits. “The important thing is we strike the right balance to protect our coasts and people while still powering America and achieving American Energy Dominance,” U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said upon announcing the plan. The OCS is thought to contain billions of barrels of technically recoverable oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas that could potentially enhance U.S. energy security. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) latest estimates from 2016 show a mean of 89.87 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and a mean of 327.49 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered technically recoverable natural gas in the […]