Obama Bans Drilling in Atlantic, Arctic Waters
Andrea Sears, Producer
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
Health and Wellness
Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…
Social Issues
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
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 …
Environment
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
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
Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…