[ad_1]
Published:
The environmentalists’ nightmare has come true.
Donald Trump may have time to sell oil drilling contracts in Alaska before leaving the White House.
– Another way for the Trump administration to appease its allies in the oil industry, says Adam Kolton, head of the environmental organization Alaska Wilderness Leagues.
On Monday, the green light arrived that many environmental organizations feared and that the oil lobby wanted.
The largest nature reserve in the United States, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, has long been a free zone for rare birds, wild reindeer, and polar bears to roam without human intervention. But now oil companies are expected to get permission to drill for oil there.
Deny the climate crisis
For much of his term, President Trump has worked to give oil companies access to the Arctic Nature Reserve.
Already in 2017, the process of giving the green light to oil drilling began. Then, several environmental organizations sent references on the disaster that would be for the wildlife at the site, and the global work against climate change.
For Trump’s plan to be carried out, the federal agency Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would investigate the consequences of oil extraction for the environment.
Photo: Mark Thiessen / TT NEWS AGENCY
Trump may have time to sell off oil deals in Alaska before he leaves the White House.
Said and done. BLM, led by former oil lobbyist David Bernhardt at the time, responded to critics that the authority simply disagreed with environmental organizations because “there is no climate crisis.”
David Bernhardts later became Trump’s interior minister and in that role has signed new decisions to allow the extraction of oil in natural reserves.
Photo: Evan Vucci / TT NEWS AGENCY
Already in 2017, Trump gave the green light to oil drilling.
Can be sold before Biden swears
On Monday, the Trump administration announced that the oil deals for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will now be sold.
The formal process that has begun there means that oil companies, many of which Bernhardt previously worked as a lobbyist, have 30 days to report in which areas they are interested.
When ready, BLM can, after another 30 days, make a sales decision.
This means that sales can begin on January 17, three days before Joe Biden, who opposes the plans, is sworn in as president.
“Another way for the Trump administration to appease its allies in the oil industry,” Adam Kolton, director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said in a statement.
The American Petroleum Institute, on the other hand, is positive in its statements. The decisions should have been made a long time ago, they think, because they will mean new high-paying jobs and sources of income.
Published:
