President walks political tightrope

Obama's move allows drilling from Delaware to central Florida, plus the Arctic waters of Alaska, and exploration could begin 50 miles off the coast of Virginia by 2012. He also wants Congress to lift a drilling ban in the oil-rich eastern Gulf of Mexico, 125 miles from Florida beaches.

Still off limits: the entire Pacific seaboard. And in a nod to conservation, Obama banned oil exploration near Alaska's fish-rich Bristol Bay, deeming the area a national treasure.

For this oil-dependent nation, the decision could start to reshape far-reaching economic and national security policies, affecting where the United States gets the fuel for its cars, heating and energy-gulping industry.

For a president on a roll following a big health care win, Wednesday's drilling declaration was both aggressive and pragmatic. Even with a push for cleaner energy sources and efficient cars, the nation still needs more oil, Obama said.

"The answer is not drilling everywhere all the time," Obama said. "But the answer is not, also, for us to ignore the fact that we are going to need vital energy sources to maintain our economic growth and our security."

Republican George W. Bush pushed for years to expand offshore drilling. He and Congress lifted bans on some drilling in 2008, when gasoline prices hit record levels.

Obama's plan is narrower than Bush's.

THE POLITICS OF ENERGY

Inside Washington, Obama's announcement was viewed as a political play to win Republican support the president needs for climate-change legislation he also wants. His decision drew at least a bit of Republican applause.

Allowing oil drilling on existing leases in Alaska's Chukchi and Beaufort seas could win the support of the state's two senators: Republican Lisa Murkowski and Democrat Mark Begich. The two senators gave qualified endorsements of Obama's offshore decision.

Begich is undecided on climate legislation, waiting to see what would be done on offshore oil drilling, among other issues. He said the Obama plan was helpful, but not enough to win his support on the climate bills.

"It's not a perfect deal, but it's better than nothing," Begich said, noting that there is no provision for the states to share the revenue from lease sales and royalties.

The plan exempts the North Atlantic from offshore drilling. Most New England officials, including Maine's two Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, strongly opposed drilling there and are considered swing votes on energy legislation.

But for every senator who praised Obama's decision Wednesday as at least a partial answer to the nation's energy needs, another raised alarms about befouled beaches and continued dependence on fossil fuels.

And Obama got pummeled by environmentalists. The conservation group Oceana declared Obama was "unleashing a wholesale assault on the oceans."

White House spokesman Bill Burton said of the fallout from environmentalists, "None of this should have been a surprise to anybody. We've been talking about all these different elements for a very long time."

HOW MUCH OIL AND WHEN?

It's unknown how much oil and gas, and how soon, the Obama plan will lead to.

While the first lease sale for an area 50 miles off the Virginia coast could come as early as 2012, development elsewhere along the southeast coast might not be offered until later in the decade, according to the Interior Department's leasing plans released Wednesday. Any oil or gas discoveries then would take years to develop.

Access to oil and gas along southeast coast waters also would probably be resisted by coastal states unless Congress shares the billions of dollars in potential revenue. But some senators argue the U.S. Treasury should get proceeds from oil and gas resources in federal waters.

Any new production would displace only a fraction of the oil and gas the country now imports and consumes.

The American Petroleum Institute said opening the Atlantic and eastern Gulf areas could make available more than 4 billion barrels of oil and more than 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas -- enough to fuel more than 2.4 million cars and heat 8 million households for 60 years. "It's a promising development and it recognizes that the administration understands the potential job creation and domestic energy production that will result from offshore access," said Erik Milito, director of the institute's upstream and industry operations.

But T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire Texas oilman, said, "I've seen some optimistic reserve estimates for offshore United States, and I am not sure they will hold up."

As part of his oil announcement, Obama said his government would release new requirements today requiring automakers to build more fuel-efficient cars and trucks.

He implored people to accept a middle ground between viewing drilling as a cure-all or claiming it has no place in an energy portfolio.

Said the president: "This issue is just too important to allow our progress to languish while we fight the same old battles."