Trump administration moves to lease 65 million acres of public waters for offshore drilling

[babylonsister]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/19/1813957/-Trump-administration-moves-to-lease-65-million-acres-of-pristine-offshore-drilling-on-protected-land

Trump administration moves to lease 65 million acres of public waters for offshore drilling
Walter Einenkel
Daily Kos Staff
Monday November 19, 2018 · 12:28 PM EST


One of the nice little additions to the Republican money-grab-for-billionaires tax bill last year was to open up all kinds of oil and mineral drilling of wildlife areas and untouched natural environments. Their argument was simple: losing all of that government revenue—by giving it to billionaires—meant they needed to generate money some other way … by letting billionaires profit more off of public and protected lands. Global disaster in chief Donald Trump used an executive order to overturn President Obama’s protections of around 65 million acres of the Beaufort Sea section of the Arctic Ocean from offshore drilling. This has led to a federal lawsuit arguing that Trump does not have the legal right to do this. But while that decision is working its way through the courts, the fossil fuel industry, led by Trump’s Interior Department, is moving ahead in lining up its oily ducks. According to Inside Climate News, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced last week with the issuance of a “Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement, announce the area identified for leasing, and hold public scoping meetings” that it would be opening the plan for drilling up to public comments—a first logistical step in the process of destroying public waters.

The good news? There isn’t much. The environmental lawsuit against the federal government continues on, hoping to bring reason to the unreasonable and greedy.

In response, Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council sued in a federal court in Alaska on behalf of about a dozen environmental organizations. The case is far from over. Last week, a federal judge in Alaska heard oral arguments in the case. She is expected to rule in the next three to five months.

"The proposed lease sale overlaps with the area President Obama withdrew, and can only proceed if President Trump's order attempting to revoke the Obama protection is lawful," said Eric Jorgensen, managing attorney for Earthjustice's Alaska regional office.

This is not a Donald Trump thing; this is a Republican/fossil fuel thing. For years, Republicans have tried to open up pristine areas like Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and now they are close enough to taste that poisoned-air-oil-and-cash sandwich.

[Freethinker65]

1. First lease off the coast of Mar a Lago

[klook]

2. Recommending for visibility.

Sadly.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. I can't bear to read it.

Please tell me the leases won't be near the Florida coast. We are going to be vulnerable for the next six years.

[Baclava]

4. Poorly worded headline, 65 million acres in the Arctic

U.S. Starts Process to Open Arctic to Offshore Drilling

The Trump administration has begun the process to open a large area of federal waters off Alaska to oil and gas drilling

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced on Thursday that it is going to start accepting comments from the public about bringing oil drilling to roughly 65 million acres of offshore waters in the Beaufort Sea and plans to hold a lease sale in 2019.

In one of his final acts as president, Barack Obama had placed them off limits to drilling. And in one of his early acts as president, Donald Trump moved to overturn that with an executive order of his own.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15112018/arctic-offshore-drilling-alaska-beaufort-sea-trump-order-federal-lawsuit-obama-oil-spill-concerns