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    Obama will use his executive authority to impose new permanent bans on offshore drill

    Obama will use his executive authority to impose new permanent bans on offshore drilling


    Evan Halper


    Invoking a rarely used provision in federal law, the Obama administration on Tuesday announced a permanent ban on offshore drilling in broad parts of the Arctic and Atlantic coasts – a sweeping and controversial move that will help secure the president’s environmental legacy, though there are questions about whether it will survive in the next administration.

    The ban relies on the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which gives the president authority “from time to time” to withdraw federal waters from oil and gas development that are not already leased. It was announced as part of a joint action with Canada, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also made long-term commitments to protect the Arctic from drilling.

    Obama cited the Arctic’s “unique ecosystem,” the risk of damage from a spill, the high cost of working in the remote and frigid region, and concerns about climate change.

    “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,” the president said in a written statement.

    The announcement, coming one month to the day before Obama is to be succeeded by President-elect Donald Trump, is intended to help counter plans by the incoming administration to vastly expand energy extraction by fossil fuel companies.

    Trump made clear his intentions for robust new drilling during the campaign, and his appointment to key Cabinet posts of longtime loyalists to the oil industry has alarmed environmentalists. Major conservation groups had been pushing Obama in recent weeks to put the offshore areas off-limits in perpetuity.

    Presidents in the past, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, have invoked the law to issue temporary bans. Obama’s action could be the first time the law has been used to impose a permanent drilling ban.

    A senior administration official said Tuesday that the White House was “quite confident” that the decision could not be undone by Trump, noting that the law specifies no provision for reversal. The official suggested that overturning the ban could require years of legal action and the passage of a bill in Congress.

    Administration officials emphasized the economic challenges of drilling in the region and the relative robustness of the oil and gas industry elsewhere in the United States, which provides an alternative. While the Arctic is believed to hold vast reserves, it currently provides 0.1% of the nation’s crude oil production.

    The announcement is another example of Obama moving to protect his legacy of environmental protection even as Trump has promised to unravel it.

    Trump has suggested that he could walk away from the landmark agreement on global warming that Obama signed with other countries in Paris last year, as well as scrap the Obama administration’s signature effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants.

    Trump has promised to champion coal power, eliminate subsidies for green energy programs and broadly relax federal environmental regulations. His pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Scott Pruitt, is a climate change skeptic who has led state efforts to resist the agency’s authority. Trump’s choice for Energy secretary, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, has also expressed doubts about human-caused climate change and is a close ally of the oil industry.
    The announcement on Tuesday, which also includes large parts of the Atlantic, from New England to the South, comes a month after the administration said it would not sell new leases for drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic through 2022. That announcement also blocked expansion in the Pacific, leaving the Gulf of Mexico as the primary offshore production area.

    While many lawmakers on the East Coast supported Tuesday’s decision, lawmakers from Alaska sharply criticized it and other moves by the administration that have restricted oil development in that state. The vast majority of the state’s budget is funded by oil revenues.

    “These decisions, and others made during your administration, have consistently been executed over our objections, without meaningful consultation, and have drawn widespread opposition from the people we serve,” Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, as well as U.S. Rep. Don Young, all Republicans, wrote to Obama on Tuesday.

    http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...220-story.html



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    Can he do that?

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