Why is MMS doing another 5-year program now?
In light of the current energy situation and President Bush’s lifting of the Presidential Withdrawal, the Secretary of the Interior directed MMS to begin the initial steps for developing a new five-year program. We are, in effect, getting a two-year jumpstart on that process. It is still a multi-step, and multi-year process to develop a five-year program. The current five-year program took effect on July 1, 2007 at a time when oil was only $64 a barrel and does not contain many of the areas that were under Withdrawal and remain under Congressional ban. Should the Congressional ban be lifted, a new program would have to be developed to make those areas available.
