Interior to open 12 new sites for drilling

The Sun Herald, 5/1/7

The federal government is moving to open up millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and natural gas drilling.

The new leases will be offered for sale through 2012, though specific locations were not provided Monday. Half of the Gulf sites are located in the central Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Mississippi and Louisiana, while five are off the coast of Texas in the western Gulf. Only one new lease is planned in the eastern Gulf to keep new leases more than 125 miles off the Florida coast.