skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Obama Bans Drilling in Atlantic, Arctic Waters

play audio
Play

Thursday, December 22, 2016   

NEW YORK — President Obama has designated hundreds of millions of acres of federally-owned Atlantic and Arctic waters off-limits to oil and gas leasing.

Citing the extreme difficulty of cleaning up oil spills in the Arctic, the White House announcement, issued late Tuesday, protects large portions of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. And on the East Coast, a series of underwater canyons stretching from Massachusetts to Virginia are now protected.

Mark Brownstein, vice president in the Climate and Energy program at the Environmental Defense Fund, said those canyons are critical to biodiversity and to the economies of many coastal states.

"It's an incredibly productive fishery,” Brownstein said. “And a clean Atlantic Ocean is also the lifeblood of a very robust tourism industry that's worth literally hundreds of billions of dollars of economic activity."

The oil and gas industry said the president's action ignores national security concerns and threatens the creation of good-paying jobs. Republicans in Congress have said they will overturn the action as soon as the next administration takes over in January.

But the authority to protect these areas from drilling is contained in a 1953 law that does not specify that future presidents can reverse the order. Brownstein said there will be strong opposition to any move to overturn the protections.

"The environmental community will strongly support keeping these bans in place,” he said. "I think as far as the prohibition on development in the Atlantic, you'll find that many of the states will be right there with them."

And Brownstein argued that, considering the future of oil and gas in a low-carbon world, drilling in these areas is not a sound investment.

"When you look at the wide variety of analyses that have been done, there's no analysis that I've seen that justifies the development of the Arctic or the offshore Atlantic,” Brownstein said.

The presidential ban on drilling in Arctic waters, combined with action taken by the Canadian government, will, for now, take much of that region off the table for oil and gas development.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021