Trump Agency Takes Major Step Toward Arctic Refuge Oil Drilling
Source: Bloomberg
Trump Agency Takes Major Step Toward Arctic Refuge Oil Drilling
By Jennifer A Dlouhy
December 20, 2018, 1:00 PM EST
> Interior releases environmental analysis of ANWR oil leasing
> Analysis is necessary step before potential sale next year
The Trump administration will take a major step toward drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with an analysis of how plans for leasing the territory could affect polar bears, caribou and other animals.
The Interior Department’s draft environmental impact statement, to be published on Thursday, is a milestone in the administration’s push to sell drilling rights in the refuge’s coastal plain as soon as 2019. It lays out four approaches to leasing the land for oil development with an array of different stipulations, including one option that would forgo the activity altogether.
In each case, said Assistant Interior Secretary Joe Balash, the leasing options include protections for the primary calving habitat of the porcupine caribou, a wide-roaming species whose conservation is co-managed by Canada and the U.S.
“All of those alternatives have some degree of protection, whether it’s timing limitations on surface activity, no surface occupancy in the area, or, in a couple of cases, the acreage itself in that primary calving habitat is not available,” Balash told reporters on a conference call ahead of the report’s release.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-20/trump-agency-takes-major-step-toward-arctic-refuge-oil-drilling
= new reply since forum marked as read
