Trump officials rush plans to drill in Arctic refuge before Biden inauguration

[G_j]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/17/trump-oil-drilling-arctic-wildlife-refuge-alaska?fbclid=IwAR3fiZovHyAd6vOR0RZ5FGgPejH8lJyiFpVsEpOmWgQDRzvdbKI8V4hgS9I

In a last-ditch attempt to make good on promises to the oil and gas industry, the Trump administration is rushing to formalize plans to drill for oil in the Arctic national wildlife refuge before Joe Biden takes office. On Tuesday, the Bureau of Land Management initiated the process with a formal “call for nominations”, inviting input on which land tracts should be auctioned off in the refuge’s 1.5m-acre coastal plain region.

The call for nominations “brings us one step closer to [...] advancing this administration’s policy of energy independence”, said Chad Padgett, the BLM Alaska state director, in a statement.

The call for nominations lasts 30 days, which would allow the bureau to begin auctioning leases for land tracts to oil and gas companies just days before Biden’s inauguration on 20 January. The coastal plain region, where land could be auctioned, is considered some of the country’s last pristine wilderness, containing dozens of polar bear dens, essential migratory bird habitat, and caribou calving grounds held sacred to the Gwich’in people.

“Oil and gas drilling could wipe out polar bears on the coastal plain of the Arctic national wildlife refuge in our lifetimes,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and chief executive of Defenders of Wildlife, in a statement.



..more..

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/17/trump-oil-drilling-arctic-wildlife-refuge-alaska?fbclid=IwAR3fiZovHyAd6vOR0RZ5FGgPejH8lJyiFpVsEpOmWgQDRzvdbKI8V4hgS9I#img-1

[Mz Pip]

1. Waste of time I would think.

Can’t imagine oil companies will be jumping on this since it will all get shut down in a couple of months anyway.

[MFM008]

2. All get rolled back

In 64 days.
They wont even be able to set up hy then.
Waste of effort.