By admin 
The Trump administration on Friday moved to exempt oil projects in federal territory on the west side of the North Slope from environmental reviews that have been standard for decades.
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An industry-initiated proposed rule announced by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management would eliminate the need for review of individual development projects in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, or NPR-A.
Those projects would be excluded from requirements for individual reviews, as is prescribed by the National Environmental Policy Act, which was signed into law in 1970.
Instead of being subject to case-by-case studies, NPR-A projects would be covered by a single environmental study, under the rule. The BLM would also be required to issue permits to covered projects within 60 days of developers’ applications, under the proposed rule.
The quicker approvals are in the nation’s interest, Trump administration officials said.
“Responsible development shouldn’t be held back by redundant paperwork. By utilizing over 20 years of rigorous environmental data, we are replacing slow, case-by-case reviews with a standardized process that maintains our high environmental standards, while giving operators the predictability they need to build,” BLM Director Steve Pearce said in a statement. “This is about working smarter, honoring the Trump administration’s commitment to energy security, and ensuring Alaskans directly benefit from the resources in their backyard.”
The statement describes the rule as one that will “streamline” permitting.
The proposal comes in response to a petition submitted in May by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. The trade organization asked the Trump administration for a new system to fast-track development in the Arctic region that has become increasingly attractive to oil companies.
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In its petition, the industry group said the BLM need not do case-by-case environmental analysis of new development projects in the reserve because past environmental impact studies for previously approved projects and management policies have already covered the questions sufficiently.
“Those collective (National Environmental Policy Act) reviews have spanned a period of almost three decades and have generated a substantial amount of information and analyses regarding the environmental impacts associated with production sites in the NPR-A and similar adjacent lands, and the mitigation of those impacts,” the petition said. “For sites meeting the common specifications of those that have already been exhaustively analyzed, the environmental impacts and the mitigation of those impacts are well-studied and well-known.”
The proposed rule is set to be published Sep. 8 in the Federal Register. That will launch a 60-day public comment period, to end Nov. 9.
Opposition expressed
Environmental groups have opposed the idea since May, when AOGA submitted its petition and the Trump administration launched the formal process that resulted in Friday’s proposed rule.
They reiterated their opposition Friday.
“This rule rigs our system for fossil fuel interests by requiring BLM to approve massive oil projects while eliminating the public’s freedom to say ‘No’ to unwanted developments on these shared lands. No company should get a blank check to develop the Western Arctic,” Matt Jackson, Alaska senior manager of The Wilderness Society, said in a statement.
“What we’re seeing here is a concerted attack by the Trump administration to greenlight oil and gas drilling in the Western Arctic while ignoring the harm it will cause to these irreplaceable public lands and also the government’s obligation to protect these lands for wildlife and future generations,” Erik Grafe, an attorney for the environmental law firm Earthjustice, said in a statement. The proposal “flaunts basic environmental laws meant to protect land, wildlife and people,” Grafe added.
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