The Oscillating Status of Drilling in the Arctic: An Explainer
Isabelle Wallace, Online Staff Writer
March 15, 2021
American administrations have oscillated between decisions on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), despite a five-year moratorium agreement between Canada and the USA. The USA has committed to preserve the area via four international agreements, which target the protection of migratory birds, polar bears, and caribou that migrate freely over the Canadian border. The ANWR is located on the north coast of Alaska, adjacent to the Yukon Territory, Canada.
Drilling in the ANWR has been an ongoing point of contention for American lawmakers, and is generally split across party lines. Republicans have tried to permit drilling in the ANWR almost 50 times, which is indicative of some commercial appetite for access to finite oil and natural gas endowments on this land.
The record of environmentally sound drilling is poor: disastrous events include the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, and a American federal review of offshore drilling after two incidents where Shell lost control of two drilling rigs. Current capacity to respond to a large oil spill in the Arctic region is poor to non-existent. The environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council describes the new drilling proposals as:
"a spiderweb of industrial sprawl across the whole of the refuge's 1.5-million-acre coastal plain, including drill sites, airports and roads, and gravel mines, spreading across more than 640,000 acres”.
In 2016, Canada, in tandem with the United States, imposed a five-year moratorium on oil and gas licensing in the Arctic Ocean to move away from fossil fuel-based energy dependence. The Canadian federal government is reviewing the moratorium, which expires this year (“Canada 'falling”, 2019). It will likely remain prohibited, as the Federal Government has returned $430 million in deposits to oil and gas companies, indicating these companies will never be permitted to undertake their drilling projects.
In 2017, the Trump Administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 contained provisions that allowed companies to bid on drilling sites within the refuge, contrary to the five-year moratorium agreement. In response to the Act, there was legal apprehension: the attorney generals of 15 states filed lawsuits to stop any drilling, citing violations of the Administrative Procedures Act and the National Environmental Protection Act. However, to carry out the Trump administration’s mandate, the Secretary of the Interior, David Bernhart, said reviews were complete and leases could be auctioned. In December of 2020 the Bureau of Land Management began to administer the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program in the ANWR, with the first drilling rights issued on January 19th, 2021. The next day, the new Biden administration reversed this decision via an executive order that places a temporary moratorium on drilling in the refuge.
The National Environmental Policy Act requires the Interior Department to consider “transboundary effects” (ie., how will Canadian land be affected), when conducting an assessment. On the Canadian border, adjacent to the ANWR, are two Canadian National Parks: Ivvavik and Vuntut. The wildlife in these parks would be disturbed by proximity of the drilling in the ANWR.
Despite the deceptively high bar to surpass for an administration to allow drilling on a wildlife refuge, the Secretary of the Interior was able to state that reviews had been completed and drilling was permitted. However, the Biden administration has signalled that they will be pursuing their environmental mandate by rejoining the Paris treaty and cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline project.