Seismic surveys, well drilling, ice road construction and other wintertime oil exploration activities on federal lands on the western North Slope will no longer be subject to case-by-case environmental evaluation, under a new rule the Trump administration announced on Oct. 8.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued the rule for exploration activities in the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska.
The BLM said it is granting a “categorical exclusion” to streamline permitting for most activities that would otherwise require individual environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. Up to now, such activities have had to be examined through environmental impact statements or environmental analyses — formal studies that adhere to federal law.
The exclusion from NEPA requirements means that past environmental studies of exploration and development activities are considered sufficient to guide future exploration work, according to the agency.
“The BLM has decades of experience analyzing the effects of exploration in the Petroleum Reserve and permitting responsible exploration,” Kevin Pendergast, the agency’s Alaska state director, said in a statement. “This categorical exclusion builds on that record to allow developers to more nimbly locate energy resources in the Petroleum Reserve.”
There is no public comment period on the new rule, which went into effect on Oct. 9.
Oil and gas development backers welcomed the rule, while environmentalists criticized it.
The Alaska Oil and Gas Association, in a statement, thanked the administration “for moving this common-sense action forward.”
“Decades of environmental review and operating experience demonstrate that these activities can be conducted responsibly under well-established safeguards. BLM’s analysis of the last 28 years of winter exploration activities in the Petroleum Reserve and the judicial record are clear and decisive: winter seismic and exploratory drilling activities in the Petroleum Reserve are consistently found to cause no significant impacts,” the statement said.
Environmental groups said the rule is part of a pattern of giving oil companies free rein to exploit public lands without regard for the consequences.
“It is no secret that the Trump administration will ignore impacts to public lands and our nation’s laws if it benefits resource extraction corporations, but recent efforts to remove any and all public review of Arctic oil extraction are particularly egregious,” Andy Moderow, senior director of policy for Alaska Wilderness League, said in a statement.
“The Western Arctic is not a uniform landscape, and these are not small, routine activities,” said Matt Jackson, Alaska senior manager for The Wilderness Society. “Where companies operate, how much ground they cover and what conditions exist on the tundra all matter. That’s precisely why environmental review and public engagement are important.”
The announcement about the categorial exclusion for exploration work in the petroleum reserve comes a month after the BLM announced a similar new rule for permitting development projects. That categorical exclusion for development projects had been requested in a petition submitted by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. The public comment period is open until Nov. 9.
The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization, online at Alaskabeacon.com.
