Company News
Trump Administration Promoting Offshore Oil And Gas Exploration
Wednesday 10th January 2018
Ravid
The Trump administration has unveiled plans to open up a significant proportion of the country's offshore waters to oil and gas drilling.
Under the proposals announced by secretary for the interior Ryan Zinke, more than 90 per cent of the US's offshore waters could lose their protection and be opened up for drilling operations for fossil fuels in the future.
This would cover areas in the Pacific, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska - plans that have been met with opposition in some areas.
Mr Zinke stated: "Responsibly developing our energy resources on the Outer Continental Shelf in a safe and well-regulated way is important to our economy and energy security."
He added that such steps would provide "billions of dollars" that could be used to fund the "conservation of our coastlines, public land and parks". However, Mr Zinke noted that just because an area is included in this draft proposal, that doesn't mean it will definitely be opened up for drilling activities.
There will need to be public consultations and full assessments of different areas before deciding which are suitable for offshore drilling.
Business Green reported that the governors of Washington, California and Oregon have all signed a statement opposing the proposals, in which they state: "For more than 30 years, our shared coastline has been protected from further federal drilling and we'll do whatever it takes to stop this reckless, short-sighted action."
Over in Europe, the Norwegian government recently won its battle over more oil exploration in the Arctic, after a court in Oslo dismissed a lawsuit brought by environmentalists, Reuters reported.
Greenpeace and the Nature of Youth Group had argued that the government's decision to expand exploration activities violated people's right to a healthy environment.
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