Trump Administration Cuts Environmental Review for Winter Drilling in Alaska's Western Arctic
New Interior categorical exclusion allows wells, ice roads and seismic surveys in the National Petroleum Reserve without project-specific environmental assessment or opportunity for public comment
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Interior Department today created a shortcut that lets the Bureau of Land Management approve winter oil and gas exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska without preparing an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement. The change takes effect immediately, with no public comment period, and covers exploratory drilling, ice roads, seismic surveys and water withdrawals across the 23-million-acre reserve.
Following is a reaction from Bobby McEnaney, Senior Lands Analyst at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“The Trump administration is giving itself the power to approve oil wells, ice roads and other infrastructure in the Arctic without any consideration of the environmental impact or chance for the public to have a say. The oil companies get what they want, while the rest of us will own the damage.
“This administration adopted the policy without giving the people who live closest to this land, and the public who owns it, an opportunity to weigh in. When projects get waved through without environmental review problems are not identified until after the damage is done. Interior should withdraw this categorical exclusion and give one of America's last great wild places the scrutiny it deserves.”
Background
The new categorical exclusion lets BLM approve seismic surveys, drilling permits and rights-of-way for winter exploration in the reserve without any meaningful environmental assessment or public participation. Covered activities include vibroseis surveys, exploratory wells, well testing, temporary ice roads, camps and water withdrawals. Interior says it based the exclusion on 47 prior assessments over 28 years.
The Federal Register notice is available here.
###
Established in 1970, NRDC (the Natural Resources Defense Council) works to safeguard the earth, its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. Our team of more than 800 lawyers, policy experts, scientists, economists, and communications specialists work across the United States and around the world, from offices in Washington D.C., New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Santa Monica, as well as a representative office in Beijing and affiliate offices in New Delhi (through NRDC’s wholly owned for-profit subsidiary, NRDC India Private Limited) and London (through its UK-based partner NRDC International).