Major news sources are reporting that President Obama is preparing to block the sale of new offshore drilling rights in much of the U.S. Arctic and parts of the Atlantic, a move that could indefinitely restrict oil production there. The report came from two sources familiar with the president’s decision.
The New York Times reports:
The 1953 law, which governs how the executive branch uses and leases federal waters for offshore energy exploration, includes a provision that allows presidents to put those waters off-limits to oil and gas drilling. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton used the law to protect sections of the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans, but those protections came with time limits, usually one to two decades.
It is possible that Mr. Obama could use the law to try to permanently protect far wider areas from drilling, said people familiar with his plans, but they stressed that his plans were not yet final.
The use of his executive authority would come as President-elect Donald J. Trump speaks of aiming to undo much of Mr. Obama’s environmental legacy, particularly Environmental Protection Agency rules to combat climate change and Interior Department rules to slow or more heavily regulate drilling, mining and hydraulic fracturing on public lands.
Mr. Trump could easily roll back executive orders and a handful of new environmental regulations, but some protections will be far more difficult to undo.The president has used this law before, protecting Alaska’s Bristol Bay, part of the Chukchi Sea (including Hanna Shoal a major walrus feeding ground) and more recently Bering sea waters for which Alaska natives had pleaded for protection.
This law will not protect areas where drilling or production has already been leased, including 42 parcels owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Hilcorp Energy Co., Eni Spa, Repsol Sa.
It is unclear how much carbon will stay in the ground by this decision, but the Stockholm Environment Institute has calculated that a halt of fossil fuel extraction in US lands and waters would keep 5 gigatons of carbon from entering the atmosphere between now and 2040.
Bloomberg reports:
The U.S. move is expected to be paired with action from Canada, following a March pledge by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Obama to collaborate in managing the Arctic, including taking unspecified “concrete steps” to protect at least 10 percent of its water.
Obama’s decision takes advantage of oil and gas companies’ relatively lackluster interest in Arctic waters, where exploration costs are high and development can take a decade or more. Oil companies spent more than $2.5 billion nabbing drilling rights in the region, but relinquished many of those claims as low crude prices forced them to cut spending.
Of course the fossil fuel industry and their Republican enablers will be howling in outrage, but for now, I want to enjoy this victory before the harsh reality of the fossil fuel Industry takeover of this country in January.