Part of Alaska to be opened to oil and gas leasing

[nitpicker]

Source: Rigzone.com

US Opens Alaskan Land for Fall 2008 Lease Sale
U.S. Bureau of Land Management Wednesday, July 16, 2008


In a Record Decision issued today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that it will make land available for oil and gas leasing in the northeast portion of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A).(snip) At the same lease sale, the BLM also plans to offer land in the northwest portion of the NPR-A.
(snip)

The lands made available for leasing under plans for NPR-A northeast and northwest could result in a much as 8.4 billion barrels of oil being developed. The lands could also provide trillions of cubic feet of natural gas for shipment to North American markets through gas pipelines currently in the planning stages.
(snip)

The plan includes protections for the polar bear, including requirements to consider impacts on areas used by polar bears for denning. Additionally, with the listing of the polar bear the agency will continue to work closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on future oil and gas activities.

According to the Record of Decision, the BLM defers leasing for 10 years on land currently unavailable for leasing north and east of Teshekpuk Lake.


Read more: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=64278

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Various other sites claim 2.6 million acres or 3.9 million acres would be opened to leasing.

[napi21]

1. They've been talking about this for a long time as an alternate

to ANWR. I would love to believe this will shut the damn oil companies up for a while, but...probably not!

[freethought]

2. The oil corps will probably only use these leases

to make their balance sheets look better just like they are doing with millions of other acres under lease. Leasing them but not doing a damned thing with them.

If anyone thinks this is going to bring gasoline prices down, I have bridges in Brooklyn and San Francisco that I would love to sell. Welcome to the new reality.

[booksenkatz]

3. "Drill For American Oil NOW!!!"

That's the bumper sticker I saw on a huge gas guzzler yesterday here in Michigan.

It's just one of those folks coloring hard with his red crayon, trying to push our state into the R category in November.

[Arctic Dave]

4. I have been talking about this for a while.

By allowing the oil companies more access (they already have some) to the NPR-A it effectively shuts down the "we need to drill in ANWR" yammering. Now when the repug enablers see that gas prices don't go down because of drilling, the Dems can point to this and DEMAND better conservation and alternitive energy policies.
I will not be suprised to see road blocks to the development of this from the villages that have hunted the area around the Teshekpuk Lake area. The have halted develpment in the past. But that is a totally different story.

[Winterblues]

5. Democrats have been pushing for this for quite some time now.

Natural gas burns much cleaner than oil or coal and Alaska has buku natural gas. If you want a cleaner environment you should be for this as well..

[Javaman]

6. "could result in a much as 8.4 billion barrels of oil being developed."

and it could not as well. Just because a piece of land is leased doesn't mean that there is oil or NG there.

And if there is, I say, oh about 10 years from now something will come out of the ground.

ALL OUR PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED!!! :sarcasm: