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Gov. Bob McDonnell said he discussed offshore oil and gas exploration with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday, but he appears to be banking on the Congress to speed up energy exploration in waters off Virginia's coast.

McDonnell said he spoke "sort of informally" with Salazar on the subject during a stop in suburban Richmond by Salazar to announce funding for Civil War preservation. A planned Atlantic lease sale in 2012 was set back until at least 2017 because of the Gulf oil disaster.

The April 20, 2010, explosion off Louisiana killed 11 rig workers and led to more than 200 million gallons of oil spewing from a well a mile beneath the sea.

McDonnell, who has forcefully advocated for offshore exploration, said the issue is "very much bipartisan" with Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb, both Democrats, taking up Virginia's efforts to tap oil and gas deposits off the coast. They also have appealed to Salazar, urging him to also expand the proposed drilling area.

"I think it's a huge missed opportunity for energy independence," McDonnell said of the offshore oil delay.

While he said he understood the Obama administration's reasons for scaling back planned offshore exploration after the BP Deepwater disaster, McDonnell said the nation can't abandon offshore exploration as it learns from that spill, adopts reforms and adds additional layers of industry oversight.

"We're Americans. We overcome. We don't give up," McDonnell said.

In a separate interview, Salazar said the administration is not giving up on oil and gas drilling off Virginia's coast. He said, in fact, that seismic testing is planned in a triangular region of the Atlantic to assess how much oil and gas is there.

Salazar also said Virginia's huge military presence along the coast is an issue. Norfolk is home to the world's largest naval base and ships regularly sail through Atlantic waters and conduct military exercises where oil rigs would rise from the sea.

"The major challenge in terms of doing the Virginia triangle is really a conflict with defense," Salazar said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We have worked with the Department of Defense and they have showed us where the conflicts are.

"We believe the Virginia triangle is not ready for development because of the military conflicts," he added.

Salazar also said the administration already has achieved its oil and gas production goals, without the addition of Virginia waters.

The proposed exploration area encompasses 2.9 million acres, 50 miles off Virginia's coast.

The government estimates the area can produce 130 million barrels of oil and 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Industry officials have said new seismic studies could expand on the number, which was determined decades ago.

Environmentalists are skeptical, and contend offshore drilling isn't worth the environmental risks to tourism and fishing. They argue that estimates of oil and gas potential off Virginia represent a just sip compared to the nation's big thirst for energy.

Steve Szkotak can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sszkotakap

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Salazar, McDonnell discuss Va. offshore oil

Australian bankers are among the most anxious in the world,
with their worry levels at record highs as they believe the
world is teetering on a fresh financial crisis, a report finds.

The Banking Banana Skins 2012 report found Australian financial
industry participants reported anxiety levels of 3.28 out of
five, compared to 3.15 for the rest of the world.

It was a record global anxiety level in the 13-year history of
the report by the Centre for the Study of Financial Information
and Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC).

The study found an acute sense of vulnerability among
Australian bankers as they believed they were at the mercy to
overseas events largely beyond their control.

However, PwC banking and capital markets leader Stuart Scoular
said Australian banks were well positioned to capitalise on any
weakness in the global environment.

Australian respondents felt more confident about handling the
risks than the global average and fresh ructions to global
banking could open a window for Australian banks to expand
offshore, he said.

The poll of more than 700 bankers, regulators and industry
observers globally (18 Australian) found that the top risk in
2012 was the state of the world economy caused by the threat of
sovereign default by several European nations.

The next biggest issues were credit risks and liquidity.

Australian survey respondents differed, rating political
interference their second biggest risk; emerging market
concerns ninth compared with 22nd globally and a high
dependence on technology rated at six here compared with 18th
globally.

Mr Scoular said Australians were less pre-occupied with capital
availability and corporate governance while technology
dependence had crept higher.

'This relates to the fact that many Australian banks continue
with significant system infrastructure projects, with any
delivery-related issues potentially having a significant
impact, not only on customers, but also the banks' reputation,'
he said.

Australian respondents resented new banking rules they said
were unjust and designed to curb behaviours that were never a
problem for the Australian system.

The extra burden caused new costs at a time when banks were
trying to trim costs to cope with headwinds battering revenue
growth, Mr Scoular said.

More than 3000 banks jobs have already been slashed from the
sector, with ANZ recently flagging it would shed hundreds more
positions.

Globally, the European debt crisis is the most obvious concern
but there is also lingering unease over emerging markets -
China's growth in particular - and whether it could continue to
act as a counterbalance to the weakness weighing on much of the
developed world.

Mr Scoular said that although China remained a global growth
engine, strains were building domestically including the threat
of asset price bubbles, an undercapitalised banking system and
lack of regulation.

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Anxiety levels at record high in banking

24-09-2011 10:08 Sensational new revelations now unfolding in American and British media reports on the Carroll Foundation Trust case have revealed that the UK Attorney General Dominic Grieve is understood to becoming under intense pressure from the international media to issue a public statement of clarification surrounding the biggest ever ongoing white collar organized crime scandal in modern economic history. This massive case is believed to be bringing in the elite law enforcement officers from the FBI after obtaining further compelling criminal evidential dossiers

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HSBC Offshore Accounts - US Homeland Security Case - Video

08-10-2011 16:45 Ron Paul 2012 End The Fed End The Wars

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RON PAUL Decades of Occupy Wall St : Only End The Fed Candidate - Video

28-12-2011 14:55 [ORGANIX was a protest band i was part of, based in guernsey during the late 80s/early 90s, when the island was at its most pivotal period during its extremely rapid change from a mostly fishing/agricultural, virtually crime-free inter-dependent community to one of almost exclusive sub-servience to international offshore banking. Apart from the (then) new zero-tolerance policing, clear corruption between local politicians and local business (which actually was, and still is in many cases, the same thing), the utter disregard and violation of our delicate and living local culture and environment (which, only 15-20 years later is virtually extinct -i could go on how obscenely people in the poorer bracket, particularly the elderly, who only knew fishing and growing, then ending up on benifits, being sent on humiliating and degrading work schemes were/are treated), apart from all of that, it, to us, was a 'frontline' due to it becomming a crucial hub of offshore international banking/money laundering etc (and to some of us it still is.)]

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ORGANIX - Soweto Slaughter - Video