Rumsfeld: Gulf oil, gas exploration could disrupt military activities

Supporters and opponents of expanding offshore energy production in the Gulf of Mexico are grappling over the significance of a letter sent this week by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld indicating that some Gulf production would be “incompatible” with military activities.

In a letter dated Wednesday to Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., Rumsfeld said areas in the Gulf east of the “Military Mission Line,” which extends south from the Florida Panhandle and about 234 miles west of Tampa Bay, “are especially critical to DOD due to the number and diversity of military testing and training conducted there now, and those planned for the future.”

GovExec