Offshore drilling controversy awaits new administration
Posted: 03:03 PM ET
By Lisa Desjardins
CNN Radio
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Remember “drill, baby drill?” The Bush administration is starting to make it happen now, quietly beginning the process for exploration and drilling off the coast of Virginia.
The move means that President-elect Barack Obama and his newly named nominee for interior secretary, Ken Salazar, will have to jump feet-first into the decades-old debate over offshore oil drilling immediately after taking office in January.
Virginia has become ground zero for the drilling debate because of possible reserves off the coast and what energy experts see as a friendlier legislature than elsewhere.