Thread: Michele Bachmann claims there has been just one new oil drilling permit

More false claims from the rightist GOP presidential hopefuls.

PolitiFact | Michele Bachmann claims there has been just one new oil drilling permit issued since Obama took office

Just one oil drilling permit approved during the entire Obama presidency? We recalled that in a March 11, 2011, press conference, Obama said, "we’ve approved more than 35 new offshore drilling permits that meet these new safety and environmental standards." And he was talking only about permits issued after the Gulf of Mexico moratorium.

So somebody's got to be wrong.

We went first to the Department of the Interior press office, which sent us a link to a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, or BOEMRE, report on the "Status of Well Permits and Plans Subject to Enhanced Safety and Environmental Requirements."

According to the report, 39 shallow-water permits for new wells have been issued since June 8, 2010, when new rules and information requirements were put into effect. Shallow water drilling operations were not affected by the deepwater drilling moratorium following the gulf oil spill. And there were lots more shallow-water well permits issued by the Obama administration prior to June 8, 2010. Remember, Bachmann's statement referred to permits issued "under the Obama administration since they came into office."

Originally Posted by Commodore

Did any such sites actually contain any oil?

The company who holds the lease would believe that there is the possibility that there is recoverable oil at the site, that's why they applied for a permit.
The point of issuing a permit is to allow the company to drill, and the purpose of drilling is to discover whether the site has recoverable oil.
If oil is discovered, more wells need to be drilled to map the deposit and a plan on how to best exploit the deposit needs to be drawn up, and then production wells can be drilled, the process can take 20 years.