• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires May 29, 2023
Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax May 29, 2023
Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing May 29, 2023
UK Traffic Calming Strategy Produces Solid Results, Manufactured Anxiety May 29, 2023
Community Wind Farm Earns Support, Generates Income in German Village May 29, 2023
Next
Prev

Trump Administration Freezes Massive Offshore Drilling Scheme Until After 2020 Election

April 28, 2019
Reading time: 4 minutes
Primary Author: The Energy Mix staff

BSEE/Wikimedia Commons

BSEE/Wikimedia Commons

1
SHARES
 

The Trump administration is acknowledging at least a temporary defeat in its effort to open 128 million acres (51.8 million hectares) of Arctic and Atlantic Ocean waters to oil and gas drilling, announcing Thursday that it will delay release of the plan until after the 2020 U.S. election.

The U.S. Interior Department’s response to the decision by District Judge Sharon Gleason “appears to be an acknowledgment that the court decision is a significant setback for what [Donald Trump] has called his policy of ‘energy dominance’—an effort to rapidly expand oil and gas drilling across the country,” the New York Times states.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
Subscribe

In her ruling, Gleason “wrote that the law in which Congress gave the president authority over offshore drilling—the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act—expressly allows for leasing withdrawals but does not state that a subsequent president can revoke those withdrawals without congressional approval,” the Washington Post reported late last month.

“President Trump’s lawlessness is catching up with him,” Earthjustice lead attorney Erik Grafe at the time. “The judge’s ruling today shows that the president cannot just trample on the constitution to do the bidding of his cronies in the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our oceans, wildlife, and climate.”

The draft five-year drilling plan, released early last year, would hold only one of 26 planning areas in the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean off limits to oil and gas exploration. It immediately ran into opposition from at least three Republican governors, more than 100 members of Congress, the U.S. Defense Department, and dozens of environmental groups.

“Oil industry lobbyists and Republicans on Capitol Hill who have worked closely with the administration on crafting the plan said earlier this year that they expected the final plan to be released this spring,” the Times reports. But now, “given the recent court decision, the Department is simply evaluating all of its options to determine the best pathway to accomplish the mission entrusted to it by the President,” U.S. Interior Department spokesperson Molly Block said in an email.

Multiple news outlets last week cited a Wall Street Journal interview with incoming interior secretary and prolific agribusiness lobbyist David Bernhardt, his first media availability since taking office. “By the time the court rules, that may be discombobulating to our plan,” Bernhardt said. “What if you guess wrong?” he added. “I’m not sure that’s a very satisfactory and responsible use of resources.”

The American Petroleum Institute did its best to put up an optimistic front. “We are hopeful that an appeal of this case will move quickly and that we can proceed with the important work of exploring for America’s offshore resources without unnecessary delay,” said Erik Milito, vice president of upstream operations.

“The eastern Gulf is important to us,” API President Mike Sommers added earlier this month. “It’s a prolific basin, and it’s where we’ve had a lot of success.”

But U.S. environmental groups were buoyed by the announcement. “Every single governor from Maine to Florida and from Washington to California opposes offshore drilling off their coast,” said National Wildlife Federation President Collin O’Mara. “Republican and Democrat alike.”

“Anything short of all new areas being protected would be a major problem for the communities and coastal economies who have the most to lose from dirty and dangerous offshore drilling,” added Oceana Campaign Director Diane Hoskins. “Considering every east and west coast governor opposes drilling off their coast,” she added, Trump and Bernhardt “should fulfill their duty to represent the people, not stand with special interests.”

Elected officials are stepping up, as well, with a spokesperson saying Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) “is cautiously optimistic about this news, but we will remain vigilant in continuing to oppose any effort to drill off of Virginia’s coasts.”

“This administration has treated public waters like a bottomless cash cow for Big Oil from day one, and if it takes a court order to get them to see reason, so be it,” added House Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ). And in a committee hearing last month, Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-SC) set off an air horn to mildly approximate the effects of loud seismic testing on whales and other marine life.

“It’s fair to say seismic air gun blasting is extremely loud and disruptive,” he asked an Interior Department witness. “Is that correct?” In the course of the hearing, Cunningham revealed that seismic testing is 16,000 times louder than the air horn, and goes on for weeks or months at 10-second intervals.



in Arctic & Antarctica, Biodiversity & Habitat, Energy Politics, Legal & Regulatory, Oceans, Oil & Gas, United States, Water

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Martin Davis/Facebook
Carbon Levels & Measurement

13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires

May 29, 2023
268
York Region/flickr
Heat & Temperature

Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing

May 29, 2023
174
Jörg Möller/Pixabay
Cities & Communities

UK Traffic Calming Strategy Produces Solid Results, Manufactured Anxiety

May 29, 2023
50

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Neal Alderson/Twitter

Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax

May 29, 2023
1.9k
Martin Davis/Facebook

13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires

May 29, 2023
268
York Region/flickr

Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing

May 29, 2023
174
pixabay

Anti-Mob Laws to Prosecute Fossils, Kudos for Calgary, 113M Climate Refugees, Orcas Fight Back, and a Climate Dictionary

May 29, 2023
189

Waste Heat from Quebec Data Centre to Grow 80,000 Tonnes of Veggies Per Year

May 29, 2023
74
Inspiration 4 Photos/flickr

Cooling Upper Atmosphere Has Scientists ‘Very Worried’

May 23, 2023
308

Recent Posts

Jörg Möller/Pixabay

UK Traffic Calming Strategy Produces Solid Results, Manufactured Anxiety

May 29, 2023
50
kpgolfpro/Pixabay

Community Wind Farm Earns Support, Generates Income in German Village

May 29, 2023
45
Pexels/pixabay

Engineers Replace Sand in Concrete with Disposable Diapers

May 29, 2023
25
Sol y Playa condo, Rincón, Puerto Rico

Storms, Sea Level Rise Intensify Conflicts Over Public Beach Access

May 29, 2023
35

U.S. Megadrought Brings Private Water Brokers Into Focus

May 28, 2023
36
FMSC/Flickr

Waive Debt to Unlock Urgently Needed Adaptation Funds, Researchers Urge

May 27, 2023
30
Next Post
Canadian Armed Forces Operations/Facebook

Town Evacuates Ahead of Possible Dam Failure as West Quebec Floodwaters Surge

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}