Local residents outraged by new plans for massive area teeming with life: 'He's fixated'

[Judi Lynn]

Story by Leslie Sattler • 1h • 3 min read



Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — home to polar bears, caribou, and countless other species — is once again in the crosshairs as President Donald Trump's new administration rolls out plans for oil and gas drilling in one of America's last untouched wilderness areas, reported IFLScience.

What's happening?
Hours after his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump signed an executive order targeting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The order aims to end the temporary ban on fossil fuel activities in the refuge while opening additional parts of Alaska for gas and oil extraction.

The directive also attempts to undo former President Joe Biden's suspension of oil drilling permits in the region.

Trump's order states: "The State of Alaska holds an abundant and largely untapped supply of natural resources including, among others, energy, mineral, timber, and seafood. Unlocking this bounty of natural wealth will raise the prosperity of our citizens while helping to enhance our Nation's economic and national security for generations to come."

Why is drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge concerning?
This 78,000-square-kilometer rolling tundra and wetlands area hosts an incredible array of wildlife, including bears, moose, wolves, and eagles. An estimated 11 billion barrels of oil lie beneath it.

More:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/local-residents-outraged-by-new-plans-for-massive-area-teeming-with-life-he-s-fixated/ar-AA1zYm8Y?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=d2ca4674e5a046278679f1da5d6e66e6&ei=36

[Scrivener7]

1. Gee. Who ever saw that coming when you voted for Mump, Alaska?

Idiots.

[atreides1]

2. Correct me

But, didn't Alaska go to Trump in the last election.

How many of those local residents voted for him?

[hatrack]

3. ANWR Is a GOP fetish object . . .

It's the ultimate manifestation of Libtard-Owning, which is why they just can't let it go until it's drilled and spilled and wrecked.

[modrepub]

4. Too Expensive

Economics make it highly unlikely that any drilling will occur here any time soon. Season is short, weather prohibitive and getting supplies and people is expensive. Not to mention the area lacks infrastructure to get oil out.

Economics is currently hindering any drilling but government subsidies and future innovation could change the narrative at some point.

[NoMoreRepugs]

5. Excellent synopsis. TY.

[paleotn]

6. And the future economics of crude itself are not good. Certainly medium to long term.

China is all in on electric vehicles. So is Europe. And the Chinese are better at it than we are. We've hit a plateau, but as technology improves and price declines, we won't be here for long. There will always be a market since crude is so useful in so many ways and hybrids will be with us for decades to come, but not like the past. The economics of having to recoup massive ANWR development costs over decades, in a declining market, make little sense no matter how government may try to incentivize it. The internal combustion engine is really a dead man walking. And neither Trump, nor his gas guzzling, goober followers can reverse that.

[modrepub]

10. Hope You're Right

But oil consumption keeps climbing.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/271823/global-crude-oil-demand/

I think we’ll continue to consume oil for reasons other than auto propulsion. But that chart makes me think the EV inflection point is still some point in the future. Maybe demographics in industrialized countries also come into play soon.

IDK how all this will shake out.

[paleotn]

11. Yes, it is some point in the future. So is recouping investment in new crude infrastructure.

You're thinking of now. If I'm thinking of investing in crude production from ANWR, I don't give two shits about now. I'm going to have to recoup the cost of that investment 10, 20, who knows how many years into the future. If crude consumption peaks and declines due to EV adoption during that time, I'm stuck with a shit ton of investment I'm going to have hell of a time recovering. Thus, I won't invest in drilling ANWR. Too risky. That's my point. In that calculus, now is irrelevant.

[Martin Eden]

9. Even if the federal government heavily subsidizes infrastructure for access & transportation?

The "principle" of cutting government spending does not apply to lining the pockets of the oil industry, just as it doesn't apply to huge deficits for billionaire tax breaks.

DRILL BABY DRILL is an ideological goal of the Orange Cretin. Whether or not it makes economic sense is besides the point, as long as his actions make environmentalists weep.

Of course, the oil companies will calculate potential profits before making huge investments, but haven't these corporations been clamoring for decades to open the Refuge for extractive industries?

[hatrack]

12. Zero bids in the lastest auction (January 2025); only bidder in 2021 was the State of Alaska

Jan 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department said on Wednesday a congressionally mandated oil and gas drilling lease auction in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge received no bids from energy companies.

Outgoing President Joe Biden's administration billed the outcome as proof the 19 million-acre refuge, home to species including polar bears and Porcupine caribou, should remain off-limits to fossil fuel development, even as President-elect Donald Trump seeks to encourage expanded drilling there.

"The lack of interest from oil companies in development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge reflects what we and they have known all along – there are some places too special and sacred to put at risk with oil and gas drilling," said Acting Deputy Interior Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis.

The U.S. was scheduled to hold a federal auction for some 400,000 acres of the refuge, the minimum required by the 2017 Tax Act, on Friday, but had required bidders to express interest in advance by a Jan. 6 deadline.

EDIT

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/alaska-wildlife-refuge-drilling-auction-yields-no-bids-us-says-2025-01-08/

[modrepub]

13. Thanks

I vaguely remember these auctions going this way. Thanks for posting this information!

[GiqueCee]

7. The Orange Gargoyle...

... will keep committing outrage after outrage until the public's response is furious enough for him to justify declaring martial law, which is what he's wanted from Day 1.
Who's gonna stop him? The Supreme Court majority is just as corrupt as he is, so don't look to them for a redress of grievances, and Congress is dominated by corrupt, lying cowards who are waiting to rule over the ashes of whatever's left when he done, or dead.
What to do, what to do... we better come up with something before there's nothing left to save.

[bronxiteforever]

8. Theodore Roosevelt said

Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the ‘the game belongs to the people.’ So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people.