Oil and gas drilling could increase in Alaska's wilderness under proposed exclusions to environmental laws

Alaska's wild places might be under threat -- with little oversight -- after a move by the Trump
administration to fast-track oil drilling in the National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve. 

Adam Federman reports for High Country News that the administration is issuing a "categorical exclusion" in the National Environmental Policy Act that would allow "new winter exploration and drilling to move forward without any kind of environmental review" by federal agencies or input from the public.  

Drilling in the protected areas has been "well-documented" to heavily disturb wildlife and altar the landscape in harmful ways, Federman writes, and yet the exclusion "could be released as early as this week." 

There is legal basis for seeking such exclusions, but applying it to a delicate ecosystem is uncommon. Jeremy Lieb, an attorney with environmental advocacy group Earthjustice told Federman the exclusions are usually applied where the changes caused by industry won't threaten the natural environment. Lieb said the effects of what's being proposed in Alaska are "well-documented" and are exactly the "kind of actions that should be scrutinized by the land-management agency."

The exclusion is in line with other rules re-written by the Trump administration to make drilling easier in Alaska's protected wilderness, some of which are already affecting local tribal communities, who have been "inundated with new drilling activity," as a result, Federman reports. Such operations also pose risks to workers, and increase the likelihood of oil spills.