Civic Register
| 6.2.21
Biden Admin Suspends Oil & Gas Leasing in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Do you support or oppose oil and gas leasing in Alaska’s ANWR?
What’s the story?
- The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it is suspending oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Coastal Plain on Alaska’s North Slope.
- The Dept. of the Interior (DOI) is suspending active leases pending a review under the National Environmental Policy Analysis (NEPA), which will determine whether the leases that have already been made should be reaffirmed, voided, or subject to additional mitigation measures. The review will focus on the potential impact of the oil and gas leasing program along with what it alleges are “legal deficiencies in the current leasing program’s environmental review under NEPA.”
- Oil and gas leasing in ANWR was authorized by a Republican Congress and the Trump administration in 2017 through the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act after years of advocacy by proponents of energy development in the area. It required that at least two lease sales be made in the non-wilderness Coastal Plain by 2024.
- The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a subagency of DOI, began the program after the completion of a NEPA environmental impact statement and administered the first lease sale on January 6, 2021, when it issued 10-year leases on nine tracts covering more than 430,000 acres within the 1.5 million acre portion of ANWR opened for energy development (ANWR as a whole is about 19.3 million acres).
- Biden allies in Congress praised the move, as Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) tweeted, “We must focus on building a clean energy future so we can protect beautiful, sacred spaces like #ANWR from being exploited for oil and gas.” Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) called the suspension “a big win in our fight to save ANWR” and added, “The Trump admin spent years trying to open up these pristine wilderness areas to oil & gas drilling. Let’s make these protections permanent!”
- Members of Alaska’s delegation to Congress and the state’s governor released statements opposing the suspension of the oil and gas leasing program, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK), who were two of the four GOP senators to support the confirmation of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Rep. Don Young (R-AK), who introduced Haaland ― his former colleague in the House ― at her confirmation hearing.
- Murkowski said the Biden administration’s actions “are not unexpected but are outrageous nonetheless” given the environmental safeguards for development and added that it undermines U.S. energy security:
“The oil and gas leasing program established by the Trump Administration meets the legal mandates required by Congress including imposing a framework with a range of environmental safeguards that are successfully guiding production elsewhere in northern Alaska. This action serves no other purpose other than to obstruct Alaska’s economy and put our energy security at great risk.”
- Young, who is the dean of the House as the chamber’s longest-serving member, said he is “extremely dismayed” by the Biden administration’s decision to freeze ANWR leases and said:
“Make no mistake; this suspension is a grave one, not only for those employed by Alaska’s energy industry but also for the Alaska Native community of Kaktovik. Despite being the primary stakeholders involving policy affecting their land, the pro-development voices of the Kaktovik Iñupiat continue to be ignored by those who believe they know better than the people who actually live in ANWR. I know that Alaskans can responsibly balance energy development with environmental conservation; I suspect that deep down, President Biden knows this as well, given his 1980 vote for ANILCA which set aside a portion of ANWR for oil extraction. When President Carter signed ANILCA into law, Alaskans were promised the right to drill on the Coastal Plain, making this Executive Action well outside the original scope of Congressional intent.”
— Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: US Department of State via Flickr / Public Domain)
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What the hell is wrong with people destroying more of the land our environment and animals rely on as we continue to try and take over the world we think we own and to hell with the other creatures that live here many longer than we have. Just wait till they all go extinct and then you will be forced to be what you are supposed to be anyway...
Some areas of our country should be protected.
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It support
Support drilling to cover usage in America.
OPPOSE!
These policies that are ending our energy independence are victimiing Americans. You as our represtatives have a solumn reponsibility to do what is right for America. Our gas prices are rising out of control, inflation is coming on stong. Please vote the right way and help us in America make ends meet by allowing drilling and pipelines.
There is no point to a wildlife refuge if it is not a safe refuge for the wildlife. Destroying it with roads, oil fields, pipes, spillage and corporate incursions will only add to the already disastrous destruction resulting from climate change. We should be MINIMIZING our impact on these fragile lands!
We must take climate change seriously and immediately support the necessary actions it will take. The future of the entire world is at stake.
We need to be moving towards clean, renewable energy sources, not doubling down or even increasing by any amount any investment in fossil fuels. Solar, wind, hydro etc are all enough to power the country so let’s just focus on building the infrastructure to make it happen! :)
The Alaska Arctic Reserve has been fought for by the citizens of Alaska for years and when Trump okayed it the citizens celebrated what it would bring to the state. They already have a pipeline in Alaska and know how to maintaine it well. During the long winters animals actually stay nearby because it is warmer. But I guess this is another payback because the State overwhelmingly vote for Trump! Everything Trump must be wiped out by Biden administration!
I agree with Pres. Biden that there should not be any drilling for oil or gas in Alaska's Artic National Wildlife refuge! We have already caused the melting of much of the Arctic ice and these animals have no where else to go. This is national land and must be left pure for the future. Oil and gas supplies in the earth are finite, which is why we must develop renewable sources of energy. We've already used much of what the Earth holds in oil and gas, and when it's gone, it's gone! We are in a climate crisis caused by too much greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, and this has warmed the oceans causing Arctic ice to melt. This in turn affects the polar jet stream and our weather. The resources on Earth are finite, so we need to plan how these will be used!
When oil and gas companies can extract oil and gas in Louisiana in a clean and safe manner and when they start cleaning up the mess they have made in our state...then maybe, and just maybe, we can think about allowing them into a pristine area like ANWR. Louisiana has one of the largest populations with industry related cancer - we have two of the three top polluters in EXXON (with the Baton Rouge Plant being Number One) and our Leaders in the State House as well as the US Senate and House of Reps are more worried about the industry than the people they should be supporting.....which are those living close to petrochemical plants that are exposed to high rates of cancer causing by products..... what do our reps do? Vote to change the toxic levels of carcinogens...just like Texas...sad...very sad...
Let's leave at least on unspoiled land unspoiled. There is enough oil elsewhere.
Leave the carbon where it belongs, in the ground.
Stop using dead peoples oils for our fuel. No more
Biden’sbullshit decision to stop leasing is just another slap in the face of America staying energy independent and his ignorant attack on the oil and gas industry.
We need to go the other way! Clean energy is now our only hope to try and save this planet. We already may be too late!
The fossil fuel industry will have to be radically reduced and changed if we have any hope to prevent the future ravages of the evolving Climate Crisis. I have posted many comments on the what, why and how’s of this. … … … For those that think that the transition to renewable power will be difficult, there is one really clear and direct path to get there quickly. Update the power grid to secure it and make it ‘smart’. Let the power companies become the repositories of power for redistribution where-ever it is needed and establish National net metering mandates to allow any excess power generated by individuals to be banked by the power company and returned when needed. Further incentivize solar panel installations by individual property owners connected to the grid (solar generation has become less costly than many fossil fuel driven power plants) and you will have readily available electric power that can be moved to wherever it is needed. … … … This is a bottoms-up approach that eliminates the need for individuals to install costly battery storage systems and helps assure that there are no shortages of critical materials for battery storage in electric vehicles and possibly in power company repositories. Net metering incentivizes individuals by returning any excess banked energy generated when the sun is shining back to them when the sun is not. … … … The cost of electricity goes down for the property owner generating power. At scale, the cost of solar installations will go down, we get clean non-polluting power that can be distributed nationally wherever it is needed and we centralize expensive and complex energy storage systems at the redefined power companies. Conceivably, property owners of solar generation facilities will pay nothing more than net-metering charges and probably some overhead for line and facility maintenance. … … … This would of course take some study but I believe that this is something that could be accomplished within ten years if we get started on upgrading the power grid now. … … … I currently am still waiting for the power company to approve a net-metering connection of the 12 kW solar system we will be installing. We are on a rise and as I look out at all those beautiful southern facing roofs on homes around us, the potential of all this becomes really clear. I have sized the installation to match an annual output that is just under our average annual power consumption for the last three years and using weather data from a weather station 1.5 miles away. If everything works out as planned, I will save something like $2,500 a year in power charges. We are taking some risk with solar and once we can budge the power company bureaucracy and get connected we will have a clearer picture. Will be glad to report pluses and minuses as I encounter them. … … … Unfortunately, it will take a few years of cost savings to justify getting a souped up Tesla so we can ditch the gas pump as well.
Thank you President Biden! I'm so tired of hearing claims coming from ignorant people who think it's safe to drill for gas and oil. That it's safe to pipe it over land. They don't think it spills or leaks onto the land. They don't think destroying the wilderness and its wildlife has very serious consequences to the precious ecosystem that sustains this planet we live on. They don't think of the devastation that it is causing! Why? They DON'T THINK AT ALL!!! If they don't actually see it for themselves they don't think about it. That's sad and dangerous.