Companies Take First Steps To Drill For Oil In Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Source: The Washington Post
Two Alaska Native corporations and a small oil services firm together have applied to do extensive seismic work next winter in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the first move toward development there since Congress voted late last year to open up the pristine wilderness to oil and gas drilling. But while President Trump, congressional Republicans, the oil industry and Alaskan leaders have been pushing hard to develop the refuge that had been off-limits to petroleum exploration for more than three decades, the Interior Department’s initial response to the consortium’s permit application was scathing.
“This plan is not adequate,” Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service said in a reply to the seismic application, adding that it showed “a lack of applicable details for proper agency review.” Copies of the permit application and the Fish and Wildlife Service reply were obtained by The Washington Post. The Alaska office of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management said in an email Wednesday that it was still reviewing the application. But the exchange over the permit highlights the difficulties of bringing to fruition a signature energy project of Trump and his fellow Republicans.
The oil services firm and project operator SAExploration said that “this partnership is dedicated to minimizing the effect of our operations on the environment.” It said it would deploy sleds, smaller vehicles and biodegradable lubricants, and would construct ice roads. But the proposal for seismic work included two 150-strong teams of workers, airstrips, giant sleds and explosives to search for and map underground oil or natural gas reserves. The Fish and Wildlife Service complained that the permit application — the only one filed so far — failed to provide studies about the effects of the seismic work and equipment on wildlife, the tundra and the aquatic conditions in the refuge.
After reviewing the permit application, Peter Nelson, director of federal lands at the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife, said: “One thing is pretty notable: how many inaccuracies and missing pieces of information there are. It really provides more evidence that industry and the Trump administration are being pretty reckless with this process.”
Oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — a vast wilderness in northeastern Alaska whose coastal plain is home to polar bears in winter and porcupine caribou and hundreds of migratory bird species in summer — has sparked a fierce debate for four decades. No drilling has been done there since it became a refuge in 1980 and no seismic work since the mid-1980s...MORE..
Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/companies-take-first-steps-to-drill-for-oil-in-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge/ar-AAy3T5H?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15
“Our biggest fear is that this is going to be rubber-stamped because there is so much top-down pressure from the Trump administration to approve exploration and drilling as soon as possible,” said Lois Epstein, Arctic program director for the Wilderness Society.
MORE: https://thinkprogress.org/first-application-to-drill-in-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-fails-to-look-at-wildlife-impacts-3857dbb54d18/
- Every fall, Long-tailed Duck gather near Kaktovik on the northern edge of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Even if they had every protection in place, I would STILL OPPOSE this insanity.
"More Than 100 Organizations Call On Oil And Gas Industries, Banks To Opt Out Of Arctic Drilling," Think Progress,
Indigenous groups and institutional investors representing more than $2 trillion call for industries to keep the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a "natural wonder." E.A. Crunden, May 14, 2018
Environmental advocates and organizations are calling on major industries to move against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The groups behind the push to keep oil and gas extraction out of the wildlife refuge include indigenous representatives, national environmental activists, and institutional investors representing more than $2.5 trillion. In a sweeping effort unveiled Monday, representatives from the Gwich’in Nation joined nearly 120 signatories opposing oil and gas drilling in the nation’s largest national wildlife refuge. Through two separate letters, advocates lobbied oil and gas companies along with major banks with potential interest in ANWR drilling.
Writing from its headquarters in Fairbanks, Alaska, the Gwich’in Steering Committee emphasized that the community opposes “any efforts to develop oil and gas” in the area. The Gwich’in Nation considers ANWR’s coastal plain sacred and has fought against efforts to open the area up for drilling. “As the world rapidly shifts towards clean energy sources, we are also gravely concerned about the climate, financial and reputational risks associated with pursuing a speculative fossil fuel source that will likely become uneconomical,” the steering committee wrote.
“It is both deeply unethical and unwise to permanently destroy lands vital to the culture and existence of the Gwich’in to pursue this high-risk gamble.”
In a separate letter, investors representing some $2.52 trillion similarly asserted opposition to any ANWR oil and gas development. Citing “financial” and “reputational” risks along with “ecological” and “human rights” impacts, the signatories urged banks and industries to “honor their fiduciary duty to investors” and pledge to opt out of drilling.
“We, as investors, encourage expanding support for the wide range of clean energy solutions and sustainable industries in Alaska, instead of helping to destroy this natural wonder,” the letter concludes. Signatories include BNP Paribas Asset Management and the David Rockefeller Fund.
Drilling in the Arctic has been a source of controversy for years. Advocates for oil and gas drilling have pushed to allow industries to drill in the area, often referred to as “the last great wilderness” in the United States. ANWR spans nearly 20 million acres and the refuge is home to many threatened and endangered species, including migratory birds, polar bears, and Porcupine caribou...MORE..
Read More: https://thinkprogress.org/anwr-advocates-write-letters-oil-gas-drilling-arctic-f5d22e55afaf/
- Caribou in Alaska (called reindeer in Europe)
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=caribou.main
