Tucked into Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was a two-page section that had little to do with tax reform: It was a provision that opened up about 1.6M acres of protected Alaska land to oil and gas leasing
Every year, hundreds of petroleum industry executives gather in Anchorage for the annual conference of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, where they discuss policy and celebrate their achievements with the state’s political establishment. In May 2018, they again filed into the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, but they had a new reason to celebrate.
Top: The Arctic Village is a Gwich’in Athabaskan community reliant on the caribou that calve on the coastal plain of the Refuge each spring. Bottom Left: Two bull musk oxen face off in the land that will be leased. Bottom Right: The proposed drilling area is located across from the bed of the Canning River, where it flows close to its delta into the Arctic Ocean in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Why the hurry? Observers point out that the tax bill’s drilling provision is at huge political risk: If Trump is defeated next year, a Democratic administration would almost certainly move to reverse any effort to drill in the wildlife refuge, which is a far easier task if no leases have been granted. In fact, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has already introduced legislation repealing the section of the 2017 tax bill that opens the refuge.
“Is it going to take that long?” Balash said. “Who knows? The first step is we’ve got to have a lease sale.”To fly over the unbroken boreal forests of the Alaskan interior, the mostly nameless peaks of the Brooks Range—the northernmost extension of the Rocky Mountains—and the ecologically fragile lagoons and salt marshes of the coastal plain is to see a place scarcely impacted by human development.
Fran Mauer was involved in some of the early analysis of draft legislation that led to ANILCA in the 1970s, and went on to work as a caribou biologist at the Fish and Wildlife Service for more than two decades until his retirement in 2002. Mauer, who has a deep, gravelly voice and the weathered look of someone who has spent much of his life outdoors, grew up in the Midwest but has lived in Alaska for nearly 50 years.
The Reagan White House saw it differently. Despite the FWS findings, Interior Secretary Donald Hodel called on Congress to open all of the coastal plain to development. He described the refuge as “the most outstanding onshore frontier area for prospective major oil discoveries in America.” In May 2017, just days before Bernhardt’s confirmation hearing as deputy secretary of the Interior, the scandal over the caribou data resurfaced. In a news release, PEER, the same group that had blown the whistle in 2001, said Bernhardt had played a central role in the affair and called for a Senate investigation before considering his nomination.
Top left: An arctic fox wanders outside of the village of Kaktovik beneath a rising winter sun along the northern edge of the Arctic Refuge. Top right: Evelyn Reitan is a Kaktovik resident against drilling in the Refuge because she believes the infrastructure will limit access to hunting lands for locals. Even if they start with a small footprint, it will expand, she says. She points to other developments in villages near the north slope that have kept locals from hunting grounds.
Pat Pourchot, who served as special assistant to the secretary for Alaska affairs at Interior during the Obama administration, said Fish and Wildlife should have played a much larger role in the review process and that he doubts the department can complete an environmental impact statement that meets the legal requirements under federal environmental rules in such a short period of time.
México Últimas Noticias, México Titulares
Similar News:También puedes leer noticias similares a ésta que hemos recopilado de otras fuentes de noticias.
Column: From 'Mad Men' to zombie spinoffs: AMC has been trampled by its own revolution'Its lineup teeming with zombies, witches, demons and vampires, AMC — the network that started the revolution behind peak TV, digital disruption and far too many Funko pop figures — seems, if not to have given up the ghost, then at least given in to it.'
Leer más »
From Europe to Arctic, temperature records tumble in 2019Deadly hot weather, which broke past records across Europe, poised to expand into the Arctic by the weekend
Leer más »
The Arctic is on fireTemperatures in the Arctic are rising at a faster rate than the global average, providing the right conditions for wildfires to spread
Leer más »
Unprecedented Wildfires Are Cloaking The Arctic In SmokeAs of Wednesday morning, much of the top of the world is smoked out.
Leer más »
From Jam to Jerky: Water Activity and the Science of PreservationOne of the most important but least frequently discussed methods of preserving is lowering a food's water activity. The key is to understand the science of how and why that works. Here, we use strawberry jam as an example to explore the underlying principles.
Leer más »