CEO DATELINE - Oil groups decry halt on Arctic offshore drilling
CEO DATELINE - Oil groups decry halt on Arctic offshore drilling
- November 22, 2016 |
-
Walt Williams
Consider joining CEO Update. Membership gives full access to the latest intelligence on association management, career advancement, compensation trends and networking events, as well as hundreds of listings for senior-level association jobs.
The Obama administration has banned offshore oil drilling in the Arctic until 2022, a decision that at least two oil industry groups said ignores the nation's energy needs.
In an announcement last week, the U.S. Department of the Interior laid out a five-year plan for offshore oil and gas drilling. The plan calls for continued drilling in the Gulf of Mexico but puts drilling along the Alaskan coast off-limits.
"The plan focuses lease sales in the best places—those with the highest resource potential, lowest conflict, and established infrastructure—and removes regions that are simply not right to lease," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said. "Given the unique and challenging Arctic environment and industry's declining interest in the area, forgoing lease sales in the Arctic is the right path forward." http://on.doi.gov/2f3fbsJ
Environmentalists and many scientists cheered the decision, saying the Arctic is too ecologically fragile to support widespread oil drilling. Industry groups countered the plan denies jobs to Alaskan workers and ignores the role energy plays in driving the national economy.
"The impact of limiting offshore access does not stop at Alaska's border," said Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association. "Some estimates predict that oil and gas development offshore Alaska could generate $193 billion in federal revenue over 50 years and support nearly 55,000 jobs nationwide. And that's just the economic impact of the decision." http://bit.ly/2geaTi4
American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerald called the plan "a short-sighted decision that ignores America's long-term energy security needs."
"Our national energy security depends on our ability to produce oil and natural gas here in the U.S., and this decision could very well increase the cost of energy for American consumers and close the door on creating new jobs and new investments for years," he said.
Gerald added that he hoped the incoming Trump administration would reverse the decision. http://bit.ly/2ge9MyO
MORE CEO DATELINE