ConservAmerica issued the following announcement on August 18.
The Interior Department this week issued a final Record of Decision that clears the way for leasing and exploratory drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
For more than a generation, the question of whether to drill for oil and gas in ANWR has divided Americans. And for good reason—consisting of 19 million acres of gorgeous wilderness that provides a home for a large variety of species of plants and animals, ANWR truly is a national treasure.
But over the decades, the politics of the issue obscured legitimate concerns. Along the way, drilling and land management techniques have improved, and strategies for developing the region have narrowed in on a small region of known as the 1002 Area.
In 2017, Congress established a new leasing program for oil and gas development in ANWR under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. While the legislation mandates the creation of at least two leases, it also explicitly protects 92 percent of ANWR from energy development.
Since the law passed, the U.S. Department of Interior has been busy assessing where and under what conditions the program could be implemented. On Monday, Interior Secretary David L. Bernhardt signed a Record of Decision approving the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program, which also carefully details protections for surface resources and other uses, including subsistence use, through a comprehensive package of lease stipulations and required operating procedures that will apply to future oil and gas activities.
The leases will likely be sold in 2021 and 2024, respectively, and it will probably a decade or longer before actual drilling takes place. And while experts believe between 4.3 billion and 11.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil reserves exist in the 1002 Area, it is uncertain what companies will purchase the leases and precisely where they may end up drilling.
Indeed, the Record of Decision further noted that, “Given the uncertainty, and the hypothetical, speculative and aggressive nature of the development scenario analyzed, the potential impacts described in the Leasing Environmental Impact Statement are necessarily uncertain and likely overstated.”
At a rate of 1 million barrels per day, ANWR’s reserves are capable of producing oil for our nation for some 30 years. While we don’t need that oil today, we eventually will—even if we succeed in transitioning most of our economy to lower-carbon energy resources. The Trump’s administration’s decision to allow exploration in the 1002 coastal plain makes sense and sends a signal to Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia that America will look after its energy independence for the foreseeable future.
Alaska contains more than half of all land in America protected under wilderness status—the federal government’s most restrictive management designation. Congress in 1980 made a conscious decision to keep the ANWR coastal plain out of wilderness status because of its petroleum potential. That recognition of the area’s strategic importance was part of a deal made by then-President Jimmy Carter in exchange for placing over 100 million acres into conservation status
Original source here.
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