Trump To Expand Drilling On Alaskan Lands Put Under Lock And Key By Obama

[Swordsmyth]

The Trump administration began the process of re-writing an Obama-era land management plan Tuesday that kept half the roughly 22.1-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) off limits to energy exploration.
The Interior Department will look at what areas can be opened to oil and gas exploration and what should be left off-limits for conservation purposes. The move will expand the acreage open to drilling.
“We think it’s time to reevaluate some of the areas that were previously left unavailable for leasing, as well as open up avenues for infrastructure to be installed — both pipelines and, potentially, roads,” Joe Balash, Interior’s assistant secretary for land and minerals management, told reporters, Bloomberg reported (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-20/trump-agency-moves-to-expand-drilling-in-alaskan-oil-reserve).
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ordered officials to re-write the NPR-A management plan in 2017. Zinke’s order was meant to “jump-start” Alaska’s oil and gas industry (https://dailycaller.com/2017/05/31/trumps-interior-secretary-issues-order-to-jump-start-alaskan-oil-production/), which has seen declining production.


NPR-A is estimated to hold 8.7 billion barrels of oil and 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The Trump administration is also moving forward with opening the coastal “1002” area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (https://dailycaller.com/2018/06/01/anwr-drilling-rights/) (ANWR). Drilling is supported by the tribe that lives on the coastal plain, but opposed by those living in ANWR’s interior where there will be no drilling.
The NPR-A is the largest block of land owned by the federal government, which was set aside by Congress decades ago for oil and gas production for the U.S. Navy.

More at: https://dailycaller.com/2018/11/20/trump-alaska-drilling-obama/

[Swordsmyth]

The Trump administration on Thursday put forward a draft proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas exploration while at the same time protecting the region’s iconic wildlife.
The proposal comes nearly one year after President Donald Trump signed GOP-led tax cuts into law. The bill also ordered the Interior Department to open ANWR’s coastal plain (https://dailycaller.com/2017/12/22/with-the-stroke-of-a-pen-trump-claims-victory-in-the-decades-long-battle-over-anwr/), or 1002 Area, to oil and gas leases.

“We have undertaken a rigorous review here,” Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Joe Balash said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. Balash said they worked with dozens of scientists and other experts to craft “a rather robust document.”


Interior’s proposal lays out four alternative plans for oil and gas leases, all of which include protections for primary porcupine caribou calving habitats. Balash said officials are also working with other agencies to make sure polar bears and other species are protected.
“We have been working very carefully and very closely with the career staff in the Fish and Wildlife Service,” the Interior official told reporters.
After the draft proposal is published in the Federal Register, Interior officials will open it to public comments and hold public hearings across Alaska. A final environmental report should be released in the summer, Balash said.
“Realistically, Congress has told us to have this sale, so in that regard, and practically speaking we will be moving forward and implementing the law,” Balash said.

More at: https://www.infowars.com/trump-to-open-ala-drilling-protect-wildlife/