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Murkowski slams Obama’s Alaska drilling ban plan

January 28, 2015

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski from the State of Alaska, has criticized the Obama administration following the release of the draft for nation’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2017-2022, which among other things, proposes a veto on offshore exploration in some parts of Alaskan territorial waters in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

Murkowski, a member of the Republican Party, has accused the Obama administration of “continued campaign to shut down oil and natural gas activity in Alaska.”  

The U.S. Department of Interior yesterday said that President Obama himself– using his authorities under the OCS Lands Act – designated portions of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas as off limits from consideration for future oil and gas leasing in order to protect areas of critical importance to subsistence use by Alaska Natives, as well as for their unique and sensitive environmental resources.

More precisely, President Obama is designating 9.8 million acres in the waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas off Alaska’s coast as off-limits, building on recent steps by the President to protect Bristol Bay and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Below is a memorandum signed by President Obama:

“Consistent with principles of responsible public stewardship entrusted to this office, with due consideration of the critical importance of certain areas within the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas to subsistence use by Alaska Natives as well as for marine mammals, other wildlife, and wildlife habitat, and to ensure that the unique resources of these areas remain available for future generations, I hereby direct as follows:

Under the authority granted to me in section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1341(a), I hereby withdraw from disposition by leasing for a time period without specific expiration the areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) currently designated by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as leasing deferral areas within the Chukchi Sea Planning Area and the Beaufort Sea Planning Area in the 5-year oil and gas leasing program for 2012-2017; and the Hanna Shoal region of the Chukchi Sea Planning Area lying within the contours of the 40-meter isobath. The boundaries of the withdrawn areas are more specifically delineated in the attached maps and accompanying table of OCS blocks. Both the maps and table form a part of this memorandum. This withdrawal prevents consideration of these areas for any future oil or gas leasing for purposes of exploration, development, or production.

Nothing in this withdrawal affects the rights under existing leases in the withdrawn areas.”

A tweet by the White House:

Short-sighted thinking

“This administration is determined to shut down oil and gas production in Alaska’s federal areas – and this offshore plan is yet another example of their short-sighted thinking,” said Murkowski, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “The president’s indefinite withdrawal of broad areas of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas is the same unilateral approach this administration is taking in placing restrictions on the vast energy resources in ANWR and the NPR-A.”

Interior’s draft plan does include three proposed leases sales in Alaska’s federal waters – one each in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, and one in Cook Inlet – but Murkowski said there is no guarantee those sales will ever be held.

Drilling? Yes, but not right now

“This administration is once again promising Alaskans that it will allow exploration sometime in the future – but not right now,” Murkowski said. “I think we all know what promises from this administration are worth. They promised Alaska multiple lease sales under the current five-year plan, but so far there have been none, as sales continue to be postponed even past when the president will no longer be in office. Promises will not fill the trans-Alaska pipeline.”

The draft 2017-2022 plan also includes a proposal to open a portion of the Atlantic to leasing off the coasts of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.

“The proposed lease sales we’re talking about right now aren’t scheduled until after President Obama is out of office,” Murkowski said. “Forgive me for remaining skeptical about this administration’s commitment to our energy security. I look forward to working with the next administration to ensure that Americans have access to abundant and affordable energy.”

More deferrals ahead?

The the Draft Proposed Program (DPP) includes a potential Beaufort Sea sale in 2020 in a program area that excludes the Barrow and Kaktovik whaling deferral areas, which were also excluded in the current Program as well as the 2007–2012 Program. According to the DPP, deferrals have long existed around Barrow and Kaktovik at the request of stakeholders, including the North Slope Borough and the Native Village of Kaktovik, respectively.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has said will continue to identify and assess additional potential deferral areas, such as Cross Island, Barrow Canyon, Camden Bay, and other important subsistence use or environmentally sensitive areas.

Alaska-offshore-map (1)

The DPP schedules a potential Chukchi Sea sale in 2022 that excludes the 25-mile coastal buffer and subsistence deferral areas that were also excluded in the current Program.

Since the onset of leasing consideration in the area, the Chukchi Sea coastal area has been recognized as an important bowhead whale migration corridor, coastal habitat for many bird species, and a protective buffer to offshore subsistence areas and resources for communities along the coast, the DPP further reads, adding that, as such, specific blocks have been deferred through past Programs and lease sales.

“BOEM will continue to identify and assess additional potential deferral areas, such as Cross Island, Barrow Canyon, Camden Bay, and other important subsistence use or environmentally sensitive areas.”

Based on BOEM’s analyses conducted for the 2007–2012 Program, the current Program, recent sales, and analysis of comments received during the pre-lease process for Arctic lease sales, other potential deferrals will be considered for this Program, such as Hanna Shoal, Herald Shoal, Ledyard Bay Critical Habitat Unit, and others.

“The deferral and buffer areas in both the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas adopted for the DPP protect important subsistence and environmentally sensitive areas while leaving significant oil and gas resources available for continued consideration,” BOEM has said in  the DPP.

A potential Cook Inlet sale is scheduled for 2021 in a program area that includes only the northern portion of the Cook Inlet OCS Planning Area.

BOEM has said that this option balances the protection of endangered species, as identified in 2013 in the Cook Inlet Lease Sale 244 Area Identification (Area ID), with the availability for leasing of the areas with significant resource potential and industry interest. The Lease Sale 244 Area ID resulted in the removal of certain blocks of concern due to beluga whale and sea otter critical habitat. The areas identified in the Lease Sale 244 Area ID and potentially other deferrals and environmental concerns will be considered in subsequent steps.