Halted by federal shutdown, oil exploration in ANWR increasingly uncertain this winter
https://www.adn.com/business-economy/energy/2019/02/01/halted-by-federal-shutdown-oil-exploration-in-anwr-increasingly-uncertain-this-winter/The five-week partial federal government shutdown has raised serious questions about whether oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska can be conducted this winter as originally planned, or whether it should be delayed for a year.
Seismic surveyor SAEexploration is working with federal agencies to salvage what it can of the season, proposing a scaled-back plan compared to its original, ambitious proposal it originally wanted to launch in December in the 1.6-million acre coastal plain, officials said this week.
The work is dependent on snow and ice conditions required to protect the tundra and support the giant seismic rigs that crawl across the region on rubber tracks. Those conditions often melt away in mid May.
Because of regulatory steps that must be taken before the shoot can occur, including a required a 30-day comment period, the work now cannot begun until mid-March even if things move “at warp speed," said Joe Balash, assistant secretary of Interior for land and minerals management, on Thursday.
“Time is still very tight even for (a limited program),†said Balash.
The comment period would be triggered by proposed incidental-take regulations from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect polar bears denning in snow caves.
The proposed regulations and related analysis were submitted to be published in the federal register just before the partial government shutdown began on Dec. 22, said Andrea Medeiros, a Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman in Alaska.
“The regulations did not publish due to the shutdown,†she said, in an email....
