Obama Administration Blocks New Oil, Gas Drilling To Prevent Harm In Arctic Oceans
New oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean was blocked by Obama administration to prevent harming wildlife at the sea and to reduce global warming.
On Friday (November 18, 2016), the five-year offshore drilling plan announced that the planned sale of new oil and gas drilling rights in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of Alaska was blocked to prevent causing harm to the wildlife in the icy waters and aggravate global warming but the plan allows to drill in Alaska’s Cook Inlet southwest of Anchorage.
President-elect Donald Trump can rewrite the blueprint for drilling from 2017 to 2022 in a process but it could take months or even years. Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, long the center of U.S offshore oil production was allowed by the plan besides from Cook Inlet.
Most of the coast of Mississippi, Louisana, Texas and Alabama in Gulf belongs to the ten of the 11 lease sales proposed in the five-year plan. The five-year plan also bars drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, which was confirmed by a decision announced this spring.
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