The U.S. Department of the Interior announced today that it is temporarily postponing public meetings on potential offshore activities in the mid-Atlantic so that information from the ongoing review of OCS safety issues can be appropriately considered in those meetings.

Additionally, Interior officials say the Minerals Management Service and its Gulf of Mexico staff have focused their attention on the Deepwater Horizon incident and would be unable to conduct the meetings until a later date anyway.

Senator Warner's spokesman, Kevin Hall, released the following statement today:

“Senator Warner believes it is appropriate and reasonable to delay any new offshore oil projects until safeguards are in place to prevent rig explosions like the one that caused the Gulf spill. Senator Warner believes it is critically important that we take the time to responsibly incorporate what we might learn from the Gulf tragedy as we move forward.

“It is important to remember that any energy production off the Virginia coast is at least seven-to-ten years away. Even with this delay in hearings, that time frame allows Virginians multiple opportunities to participate in federal and state reviews of potential energy production off the mid-Atlantic coast.”