Trump to Allow Oil and Gas to be Extracted from Areas Considered National Reserves
by evaristo lara huella zero
The fauna in territories considered virgin would undergo an unsteady change with the installation of oil fields.
Drilling for oil and gas, including in former protected areas of Alaska, is now possible after President Donald Trump signed an order to carry out the plan. Thus, the tranquility of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Alaska National Oil Reserve will go down in the history of the resource-rich state.
However, the president’s interest in accessing oil in the north of the country generated mixed comments. While some Republicans praise Trump’s measure as offering industrial development to a remote area of the country through fossil fuel extraction, environmental advocates oppose it, arguing that the area is home to multiple animal species, including gray wolves, caribou, grizzly bears, polar bears and more than 200 species of birds.
With Trump’s consent, the first thing that is intended is to reverse any restriction to cut down thousands of forest trees and thus begin the construction of roads that will facilitate the transfer of the machinery and personnel necessary to begin exploiting the resources.
The Impact of Oil Drilling in Alaska For the Gwich’in Indians, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is considered sacred territory.
Leaders of the Kaktovik’s Iñupiaq community, which lives within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, support the drilling. However, the Gwich’in leaders oppose it, considering that it disturbs the tranquility of the native fauna.
On the other hand, the wealth hidden under the soil of Alaska represents to Mike Dunleavy, the state’s Republican governor, the opportunity to generate financial resources that otherwise will never arrive.
According to Cooper Freeman, director for the Center for Biological Diversity in Alaska, environmental laws and regulations must first be complied with before attempting to dismantle existing policies that protect the state.
“Trump can’t just wave a magic wand and make these things happen. We are prepared and eager to give the fight of our lives to keep Alaska great, wild, and abundant,” he said in a commentary quoted by The Associated Press (AP). For the time being, Trump has already instructed Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior, to issue all the necessary permits and begin to bring “progress” to Alaska, but that will take several years yet.
In 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a statement on the environmental impact in the region. At the time, they calculated that the oil that can be extracted and burned would represent between 0.7 and 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere each year, equivalent at the time to about a million more cars circulating annually. In addition, those who refuse to extract the “black gold” argue that the 77,000-square-kilometer refuge could suffer irreversible damage.
