WH to Open Alaska Reserve to Drilling

The Los Angeles Times reports:

President Obama will open Alaska's national petroleum reserve to new drilling, as part of a broad plan aimed at blunting criticism that he is not doing enough to address rising energy prices.

The plan, unveiled in Obama's weekly radio address Saturday, also would fast-track environmental assessment of petroleum exploration in some portions of the Atlantic and extend the leases of oil companies whose work in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic Ocean was interrupted by the drilling moratorium after last year's BP oil spill.

The measures come as high gasoline prices and the resulting popular anger threaten the fragile economic recovery and, possibly, the president's reelection chances in 2012. Congressional Republicans and some Democrats have been clamoring for increased domestic production in response to the rising prices, which economists say vary with global demand.

Obama also took on rising anger over the record profits of energy companies and stood by his demand to end subsidies for oil and gas companies, a proposal discussed in the Senate this week, according to a transcript of the address released Friday by the White House.

"There was more detail here than I've seen him do in two years," said Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), who backs the steps to increase production. "They've got to deal with this on multiple fronts: You have to deal with price; you've got to produce more. You need an aggressive, comprehensive, long-term policy, and the president is trying to reach down that path now because he realizes the pressure is on."