Obama Banned Arctic and Atlantic Offshore Drilling and Big Oil Isn't Happy

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President Obama has announcedย what amounts to a ban of offshore drilling in huge swaths of continental shelf in both the Alaskan Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, a decision which came after years of pushing by environmentalย groups.

Using authority derived from Sectionย 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the White House banned drilling in a 115 acre area making up 98 percentย of federally owned lands in the Alaskan Arctic and a 3.8 million acre stretch of the Atlantic extending fromย Norfolk, Virginia, to the Canadian border. By taking this route, rather than issuing an Executive Order, Obama made it legally difficult for Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s administration to reverseย thisย action.

Environmental groups and Democratic senators have praised the decision, while Republican congressional members and industry groups have denouncedย it.

โ€œToday โ€ฆ the United States is taking historic steps to build a strong Arctic economy, preserve a healthy Arctic ecosystem and protect our fragile Arctic waters, including designating the bulk of our Arctic water and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing,โ€ย the White House said in a statement, which also pointed to the โ€œneed to continue to move decisively away from fossil fuels,โ€ as guided by climate science.ย ย 

President-elect Donald Trump is a climate change denier who repeatedly promised on the campaign trail and during his post-election โ€œVictory Tourโ€ that he would โ€œunleashโ€ more hydraulic fracturing (โ€œfrackingโ€) of oil and gas, and push for more โ€œclean coalโ€ production. Trump alsoย supports increased offshore drilling.ย 

Industry, Republicansย React

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Chairย of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, came out strongly against the Obama administration’sย move.

โ€œThe only thing more shocking than this reckless, short-sighted, last-minute gift to the extreme environmental agenda is that President Obama had the nerve to claim he is doing Alaska a favor,โ€ she said in a press release, which featured the state’s congressional delegation slamming Obama for making theย decision.

โ€œPresident Obama has once again treated the Arctic like a snow globe, ignoring the desires of the people who live, work, and raise a family there. I cannot wait to work with the next administration to reverse thisย decision.โ€

Murkowski, a climate change denier who said she did not vote for Trump and called for him to drop out of the race on October 8, is a major recipient of oil and gas industry campaign money. She has taken $1,353,794 from the industry throughout her congressionalย career.

Murkowski and the Alaska delegation were not alone in their denouncement of the Obama maneuver,ย with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) also bemoaning it on Twitter. Ryan has takenย $1,223,182 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry during his congressionalย career.

Industry groups such as the Consumer Energy Alliance, American Petroleum Instituteย (API), and Independent Petroleum Association of Americaย (IPAA) all scoffed at the Obama decision in pressย statements.ย 

โ€œWe disagree with this last-minute political rhetoric coming from the Obama administration and contest this decision by the outgoing administration as disingenuous,โ€ said IPAA in a press release. โ€œWith exactly one month left in office, President Obama chose to succumb to environmental extremists demands to keep our nationโ€™s affordable and abundant energy supplies away from those who need it the most by keeping them in theย ground.โ€

Cautiousย Optimism

However, Democratic Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) have shownย support for the current administration’sย move.

Meanwhile, environmental groupsย praised the decision, butย notedย the likelihood that the incoming Trump administration will attempt to challenge it. In addition, groupsย pointed to the action’sย limits, asย oil and gas drilling willย continue in the Gulf of Mexico and exploration could proceed inย large swaths of theย Atlantic.

โ€œThis is an important move, but weโ€™re still looking forward to the day when all communities are protected from fossil fuel development,โ€ May Boeve, 350.org’s executive director, said in a press release. โ€œEveryone deserves the right to safe environment and the benefits of a clean energy economy. That includes those in the Gulf and other areas facing dangerous oil, gas, and coalย expansion.โ€

Jacqueline Savitz, Oceanaโ€™s senior vice president for the United States, also called for the Obama administration to lock in a ban of seismic airgun blasting in the southern portion of the U.S. Atlantic Ocean offshore continentalย shelf.ย 

โ€œAs we celebrate this important step forward, we must not forget that a vast stretch of water from Delaware to Florida is still at risk from unnecessary seismic airgun blasting, an extremely loud and dangerous process used to search for oil and gas deposits deep below the oceanโ€™s surface,โ€ Savitz said in a press release. โ€œSeismic airguns create one of the loudest manmade sounds in the ocean, firing intense blasts of compressed air every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, for weeks to months onย end.โ€

โ€œThe governmentโ€™s own estimates state that seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic could injure as many as 138,000 marine mammals like dolphins and whales, while disturbing the vital activities of millions more,โ€ Savitz continued. โ€œWith offshore drilling off the table for the near future, permits for seismic airgun blasting should beย denied.โ€

โ€œUnchartedย Watersโ€

One key question, of course, is what will take place next in U.S. federal courts after the almost certain challenge from the oil and gas industry. It is โ€œunchartered waters,โ€ both literally and figuratively, according toย oneย expert.

โ€œItโ€™s never been done before,โ€ย Patrick Parenteau, professor of environmental law at the University of Vermont, told The New York Times. โ€œThere is no case law on this. Itโ€™s unchartedย waters.โ€

The industry, though, has pointed to a precedent of 12(a) protections being reversed. The New York Times reported that after President Bill Clintonย used this legal actionย to โ€œwithdraw 300 million acres from oil and gas drilling from an area that had already been designated as a marine sanctuary, President George W. Bush reinstated about 50 million acres to fossil fuelย leases.โ€

Andrew Radford, API‘s senior policy advisor for offshore operations, told The Times that he seesย the Bush precedent will be the one pursued byย API, its industry allies, and the Trump administration to reverseย Obama’sย move.

โ€œSimilar to how President Bush issued a memo in 2008 to add areas back in, weโ€™re hopeful that the Trump administration will take a look at this to reverse that decision and we look forward to working with them to make that happen,โ€ย Radford said.

Photo Credit: Greenpeace USA

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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