Trump, reversing Obama, will push to expand drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic [View all]
Source: The Washington Post
By Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis April 27 at 9:01 PM
President Trump will take a major step Friday to expand oil and gas drilling off U.S. shores, directing the Interior Department to lift restrictions that President Barack Obama imposed in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. But local political considerations and the global energy market are likely to influence future exploration far more than an executive order in Washington.
Several industry officials and experts predict that oil and gas firms will bid on areas the administration plans to open to drilling, including those off the East Coast. But the targeted Arctic areas are much less attractive to investors right now, and even potential drilling in the Atlantic could be complicated by long-standing resistance from coastal communities.
Jason Bordoff, director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and a former Obama energy and environment adviser, said that while the Trump administration can rescind the former president’s efforts to end exploration in the two regions, that process would be complex and involve at least two years of revamping the government’s long-term drilling plans.
“The question then is, does anybody show up, and does anybody want these [leases]?” Bordoff said. “It depends quite a bit on what the oil market looks like in two years.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-reversing-obama-will-push-to-expand-drilling-in-the-arctic-and-atlantic/2017/04/27/757fa06c-2aae-11e7-b605-33413c691853_story.html?utm_term=.4aad3de19115&wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1
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