Summer is approaching and gas prices are climbing towards (and in some cases over) $4 per gallon. Must be time for the renewed calls for more domestic oil drilling. The problem is that domestic drilling will not reduce the price at the pump. Actually, that is a lie. It will reduce the price at the pump by $0.03 per gallon – yes, you read that right – 3¢ per gallon.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, if we drill ALL of our accessible oil in the Outer Continental Shelf, it will reduce the price at the pump by 3¢ per gallon by 2030. So in 19 years you’ll reap the 3¢ per gallon benefit at the gas station. You can read the report here.

You can also read a more detailed and eloquent discussion on high oil and gasoline prices by Senator Jeff Bingaman who chairs the US Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources here.

This graphic (click on it to expand) is from an article The GOP’s Oil Drilling Pipe Dream appearing in Frum Forum. The article states: “The notion that the U.S., which sits atop less than 3 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves, can drill enough oil to drive down prices if the flow is interrupted from a region with 64 percent of the world’s reserves is a pipedream.”

Today, the Obama administration announced that there will be no new offshore oil drilling in federal waters in the Pacific, Atlantic and Eastern Gulf for the next seven years.

This is a major victory for all those who have fought hard (see NTA partner list) to prevent new offshore drilling since the federal and executive moratoriums were not renewed in the fall of 2008.

Until today, the last 2 years have been full of bad news.

At the 11th hour the Bush administration proposed opening all coasts to drilling.

Despite massive opposition and no real evidence domestic drilling would help solve our energy crisis, in March 2010 the Obama administration proposed open vast tracts of ocean to offshore drilling.

We all know what followed… the largest offshore oil spill in world history.

Thankfully, Salazar and Obama seemed to have learned from the Gulf oil spill, listened to the science, and the continued public opposition to new offshore drilling and have decided that there will be no new offshore drilling lease tracts opened in the Pacific, Atlantic and eastern Gulf for the next 7 years.

Although this is great news and a major step towards protecting out coasts from the threats of offshore drilling, some really critical issues remain. This recent announcement potentially opens the Atlantic to harmful seismic testing and allows for new drilling in Alaska. Further, we cannot forget that hundreds of Gulf Shore communities continue to struggle to recover from this nation’s most devastating environmental disaster.

Read the Department of Interior’s press release and supporting documents here

Read an ABC news story here.