The Trump administration is quietly moving to allow energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for the first time in more than 30 years, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, with a draft rule that would lay the groundwork for drilling.
Congress has sole authority to determine whether oil and gas drilling can take place within the refuge’s 19.6 million acres. But seismic studies represent a necessary first step, and Interior Department officials are modifying a 1980s regulation to permit them.
The effort represents a twist in a political fight that has raged for decades. The remote and vast habitat, which serves as the main calving ground for one of North America’s last large caribou herds and a stop for migrating birds from six continents, has served as a rallying cry for environmentalists and some of Alaska’s native tribes. But state politicians and many Republicans in Washington have pressed to extract the billions of barrels of oil lying beneath the refuge’s coastal plain.
Democrats have managed to block them through votes in the Senate and, in one instance in 1995, by a presidential veto.
I knew it was only a matter of time before this would raise its ugly head once again.
The Bush Administration pushed hard for the opening of ANWR but were unsuccessful, however I think for the first time ever the Republicans have all the power they need to finally attain this goal.
This is essentially the GOP white whale and despite the fact that we are now awash in oil, and much of the world is moving quickly toward renewable energy solutions, they will simply not allow this chance to pass by.
And despite some push back from the environmental groups and native Alaskans, there is not a politician up here who can get elected without voicing support for the opening of the Wildlife Refuge so there is nothing local that can slow this process down.
The only real hope is that since the process moves at a snail's pace, there will likely be a new administration in office before this thing gains much momentum,. That plus the enormous cost of exploration, may not make this especially viable in the next dozen years or so.
Fingers crossed.
Source http://ift.tt/2ff184y
