Ranking Congress Members Want Clarity Over Feds’ Fast-Tracking Of Western Arctic Drilling Plan

The following is courtesy of ARC Initiatives:

Ranking Members Huffman and Heinrich Demand Answers on Trump Administration’s Fast-Track of Pro-Oil Rule for Alaska’s Western Arctic

(Washington, DC) — Last Friday, Ranking Members Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) sent a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum demanding answers about the Department of the Interior’s proposal to weaken environmental protections and expedite oil and gas permitting across the Western Arctic. 

This rulemaking began in response to a petition from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association (AOGA). The petition was formally filed on May 12. Just three days later, BLM initiated the rulemaking process. The lawmakers raised conflict of interest concerns due to this suspiciously quick response time. 

Huffman and Heinrich also demanded documents and information related to the development of this proposed rule. 

Below is an excerpt from the letter: 

“This proposal, which would rubber-stamp future drilling operations in the Western Arctic, guts key environmental protections and opportunities for tribal consultation in a blatant giveaway of public lands to the oil and gas industry. This would open the door for hundreds of permits to not sufficiently balance wildlife and habitat, subsistence uses, or cultural resources across 23 million acres of public lands.”

“The short timeline combined with AOGA’s involvement in this proposal raises serious concerns about not only the Department’s lack of environmental review and public input process, but its clear partiality to the oil industry’s interest in managing the largest tract of public land in the country.”

In June, the Wilderness Society and Natural Resources Defense Council filed Freedom of Information Act requests seeking information about the DOI and AOGA’s rulemaking. The Interior Department has as of yet failed to produce any records related to the requests.

Rosemary Ahtuangaruak – the former mayor of Nuiqsut and executive director of the Inupiat group Grandmothers Growing Goodness – also wrote an opinion editorial that was recently published in Anchorage Daily News and the Arctic Sounder. She writes: 

“Simply put, this proposal would redefine the entire Western Arctic as an industrial energy zone… While we may have different opinions, I hope we can remain united in prioritizing our lives, health, and safety over speculative development projects that carry uncontainable risks. The Special Areas, the Refuge, the caribou, the clean water — these are not political abstractions. They are what we pass to our children. They carry our languages, our food, our practices, and the knowledge of how to live here. Protecting them is not a negotiation.” 

What’s Included in AOGA’s Proposal: 

• New drilling pads, gravel roads, pipelines, and supporting infrastructure could be built across the 23-million-acre Reserve without the site-specific environmental review when impacts on caribou, subsistence hunting, clean water, and permafrost are normally evaluated.
• BLM would be required to approve the plan as long as it includes a checklist of generic mitigation measures.
• Companies would have up to 10 years to start building, with no mechanism to reopen the decision if caribou patterns shift, the climate changes, or new science emerges. 
• The government would not be able to rescind approval unless it could prove a company lied in its application. 
• The process would apply across the Reserve, including inside Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok River Uplands, and other Special Areas that Congress and the Secretary have set aside for maximum protection of caribou calving grounds, migratory bird habitat, and subsistence resources.