U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason has affirmed President Joe Biden’s decision to halt activities aimed at permitting oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s Coastal Plain. This petroleum-rich area was initially designated for oil and gas exploration during the establishment of ANWR.
Judge Gleason rendered the judgment against the state of Alaska and its associated entity, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), on Monday.
AIDEA stands as the final party with active oil and gas leases within the refuge. These leases were acquired in a 2021 auction, which had been mandated by the Congress. Others have been chased away by the federal bureaucratic deep state and the investment required to fight the federal government every step of the way.
The Coastal Plain, lies adjacent to the Beaufort Sea on Alaska’s North Slope.
Under the 2017 Tax Act (Public Law 115-97), the Bureau of Land Management was directed to organize two sales within the Coastal Plain by 2024. These sales were to offer a minimum of 400,000 acres of prime hydrocarbon lands for bidding.
The management of these leases are to resemble the administration of lease sales outlined in the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976. According to the Act, the royalty rate for these leases is established at 16.67 percent.
The inaugural lease sale within the Coastal Plain of ANWR occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, reflecting the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program’s August 2020 Record of Decision.
But on Jan. 20, 2021, President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 13990. It was one of his first acts as president, having been sworn in the same day.
Biden’s directive called upon the Department of the Interior to halt all activities linked to the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program and undertake yet another review of the existing Environmental Impact Statement and potentially conduct a fresh evaluation of the environmental consequences.
The State of Alaska and AIDEA sued, but Judge Gleason this week said no preliminary work may proceed until a comprehensive analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act is successfully concluded. That is likely to take years.
Rep. Mary Peltola endorsed President Biden in April.
Judge Gleason consistently rules in favor of the environmentalists and against the best interests of Alaska.
Except her last ruling about the Willow Project was in favor of ConocoPhillips who began construction this past spring.
Much like the Executive and Legislative branches these days, the Judicial branch has exceeded its authority, and has devolved into tyrannical displays of its perceived authority.
Bingo! See SCOTUS!!!
Gleason is just another climate activist and Biden roll-over. Not an ounce of logic or reason. Her ruling is further Left-wing political design and a complete failure to adhere to the original intent of the law with respect to ANWR. Don’t expect any heady thinking from this Democrat activist.
brandon must like her shampoo. Impeach… both.
We must remember…any petroleum product produced in the US causes climate change. If it’s produced in any other country, its ok. Darn the luck, we must have had dirty dinosaurs.
Gleasoned again!
Not to worry…Mary is on it as we speak…Oh by the way has anyone seen her lately?
What? Did you say having cocktails? French Riviera? Oh thats right…Her and Joe Sniffy are “on vacation”
Must be a day ending in Y.
I know it’s against the law, but considering the law is so stupidly fluid these days, I often wonder what would happen if we began drilling anyway?
Wait until china blow is gone from office… he’d likely call up another spy balloon to rat us out then send a squadron of F22s to shoot our drill rigs…
Invade ANWR!
The tiny oil and gas lease area was a part of, and why the whole land lock up into parks, preserves, and refuges was passed. The entire law and designations have been invalidated when the entire law is not fullfilled. The legacy of perpetual incompetence and corruption in Alaska’s federal senators and the late Don Young is stunning. Sullivan and Murkowski will passively ignore this and blow it off as an issue they have no control over. The rule of law is long over in the US. It has become just another authoritarian state with an obsession for self destruction, and 2nd largest arsenal of nuclear weapons on earth.
I would like to drop Biden, Gleason and Biden’s acid head coke snorting meth smoking moron of a son right in the middle of Anwr with no head nets. After they were consumed by flying insects I would drop a drill rig right in the middle. The feds have been raping alaska for 50 years non stop. It’s time it stopped.
Beating a dead sled dog Suzanne? The real story here is the State of Alaska/AIDEA wasting OUR money on this! As you state, the lease sale happened BEFORE Biden was in office and no REAL oil companies bid!!! Instead AIDEA used OUR money to get leases. What’s the word for when the State competes against private enterprise? Help me out Suzanne…is it ‘socialism’ or ‘communism’??? I always get the two confused…no, wait, it’s the Republicans that are confused. No big bank or oil PRODUCING energy company wants their name associated with drilling in a wildlife REFUGE!!! Now, you can be like DeSantis and use the “woke” dog whistle on low IQ, uneducated, voters…’Get it boy, get it, woke, woke, woke’, or you can be smart and realize that the world is changing and oil IS going the way of coal. We can be Alaska and Alaskans and prepare for the winter ahead, or we can be West Virginia with its “Main Street” shuttered in town after town. It’s called “Capitalism”! Like I said, the real story here is AIDEA wasting State monies, OUR money, on this BS!
That was funny. Was it supposed to be?
Listen to all the Democrat climate activists squeal like little, underfed piggies. They have to find some Republican to blame. And THEY are the biggest users of petroleum products. Mental illness seems to be stuck dead-center within the Democrat Party.
Seriously…what’s it like to be wrong ALL the time??? Not a Democrat, I’m AIP and farther right than you’ll ever be! I come from an oil family. My father retired from Standard Oil (headquarters) and was involved in the pipeline project. As Jordan Consulting, I advised BP execs at their North American Headquarters (Cleveland). IF your reading comprehension was better than a third grader’s you would have noticed that I didn’t give my personal views on climate change in my comment. The MAIN point of my comment was that AIDEA spent OUR money on a political stunt. I gave FACTS supporting my position, while in your reply you regurgitated Republican talking points that are without merit. As I kid I saw the Cuyahoga River BURNING, Standard Oil being a large part of why it was burning. All the oil execs I’ve ever met or known are hard core Republican Capitalists. I KNOW exactly who is responsible for enabling the climate destroyers! Republicans are all for Capitalism…until it works against them! Then they get out the “woke” dog whistle to agitate their Pavlovian humans…YOU! The Bible states that God will “destroy the destroyers of the Earth”. I think it would be wise for liberals AND CONSERVATIVES to limit their pollution to the bare minimum.
Statehood was a tactical error.
We were far better off as a Colony.
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