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Government
Obama bans offshore drilling in Arctic, Atlantic
2016-12-21
[Wash Examiner] President Obama took the "historic step" to ban offshore oil drilling in the Arctic and off the Atlantic coastline, the White House announced Tuesday afternoon.

The action represents a partnership between the United States and Canada "to build a strong Arctic economy, preserve a healthy Arctic ecosystem and protect our fragile Arctic waters, including designating the bulk of our Arctic water and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing," the White House said.
I heard on NPR yesterday the claim that this action could never, ever be reversed in the future. No basis was given for this claim, which a cynical mind would find suspicious.
The actions, and Canada's parallel actions, reflect the scientific assessment that, "even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region's harsh conditions is limited," the White House said.

"By contrast, it would take decades to fully develop the production infrastructure necessary for any large-scale oil and gas leasing production in the region -- at a time when we need to continue to move decisively away from fossil fuels," according to the statement.
Posted by:Besoeker

#15  I doubt anyone reading this will live long enough to see peak demand. In most of the world petroleum is primarily an industrial feedstock, not a motor fuel. There are more than enough un- and under-developed areas to take up the slack should the developed world successfully wean itself off liquid hydrocarbons utilized as motor fuels. If oil stays cheap for a long period of time global demand will explode.
Posted by: Lionel Gonque2389   2016-12-21 14:40  

#14  If you like your leases, you can keep your leases...
Posted by: CrazyFool   2016-12-21 14:00  

#13  You've lost your leases. Here's your new leases.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy   2016-12-21 13:24  

#12  Building on what Darth said, many are now speaking of 'peak demand' for oil (not peak supply, which has been totally debunked) hitting in the next 10-15 years due to the worldwide move to renewables, higher fuel mileage standards, etc. eroding the demand for fossil fuels. Faced with a future of overall lower oil prices, energy companies will only invest in wells that pay off in shorter timeframes at lower price levels. Arctic/deepwater drilling is very high cost and therefore a high risk at low oil prices. Fracking is less expensive than Arctic drilling, but requires a certain oil price to make sense. With oil prices rising again thanks to our friends at OPEC, fracking has cranked back up. There's ample evidence that oil companies see the writing on the wall with regard to 'peak demand', with some scrambling to secure options in 'easy' (low cost) oil fields in Qatar and/or nixing big Arctic projects altogether (TOTAL, French oil company).

Frankly, I'm rooting for peak demand, because oil drilling is a dirty business and I'd rather not see a Deepwater Horizon incident (I live in Pensacola, FL) in that pristine Arctic environment or anywhere else for that matter.
Posted by: Whitch Turkeyneck3879   2016-12-21 13:17  

#11  #7 Supposedly under a 1953 law he can withdraw the leases and there is no way in the law to restore them. --Silentbrick
FOIA will be interesting on this if the new Trump administration keeps them from stonewalling.
Posted by: magpie   2016-12-21 13:03  

#10  I suspect Trump will also retaliate for things like this.
Posted by: Silentbrick    2016-12-21 12:15  

#9  Supposedly under a 1953 law he can withdraw the leases and there is no way in the law to restore them. But the law, much like Obamacare it can simply be repealed.

Or amended.
Posted by: Flereth Jelet5728   2016-12-21 11:37  

#8  ...or like Obama, ignored?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2016-12-21 08:33  

#7  Supposedly under a 1953 law he can withdraw the leases and there is no way in the law to restore them. But the law, much like Obamacare it can simply be repealed
Posted by: Silentbrick    2016-12-21 08:13  

#6  Unlike Congress, Trump never seem to be too worried about being called racist and then went ahead and acted as he needed to win.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2016-12-21 07:59  

#5  All it takes is an order to reverse it.

Irony is, drilling there isn't really needed at the moment with all the successful fracking going on.

Idiot man-child.
Posted by: DarthVader   2016-12-21 07:50  

#4  If it was soooooo important, why didn't he do it a long time ago? Petty isn't the half of it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2016-12-21 07:22  

#3  30 more days, 720 hours, 43200 minutes, 2592000 seconds.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2016-12-21 05:57  

#2  It will be rescinded.
Posted by: Omomort Cheager7040   2016-12-21 05:22  

#1  One last petty action by the petulant man-child. So glad he will be gone soon.
Posted by: Nguard   2016-12-21 02:52  

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