Obama was in favor of protecting it, so Trump must destroy it. The pretext hardly matters, though promising a windfall to his cronies must be a plus. I wonder if the oil companies are figuring public outrage and bad publicity into their equations? If so—and given the adjacent test wells performing so poorly (if the yield were high, the results wouldn’t stay secret)—the promised bidding frenzy may not materialize. Will they go ahead and allow the destruction of a public resource for a pittance, just to spite Obama and anger progressives?
7
The snake-oil salespeople trumped and triumphed again and their palliatives provide no benefits except to the rich!
1
Save Bristol Bay from mining. After ANWR, Trump has his sites on our richest salmon fishery without any regard for science.
5
“The discovery well was worthless,” said Sidney B. Silverman, a retired lawyer who was involved in a long-since-forgotten lawsuit filed there in 1987."
Trump is a scavenger, he'll sell those leases with no more conscience than he defrauded Scotland over their coastline for his golf course, or the millions in bankruptcies he's filed. Nothing has value to him except being liked and making money so people will tolerate him. He does not understand or care once this pristine frozen eden is destroyed, its gone as are the millions of species now in peril.
7
So, according to the NYT, Trump wants to cut payroll taxes, which would add $75 billion to the deficit every year for every % point cut and cut capital gains taxes to an extent that would add $100 billion to the deficit over a decade. Yet, they are touting arctic drilling leases that they say would bring in $1.8 billion over a decade as a benefit for taxpayers? Interesting math in this White House.
Let's harm all that wonderful wildlife so we can drain an non-renewable resource which will enrich a few folks, but put only the proverbial drop in the public bucket? Is that their idea of a joke or is that how Trump makes America 'great'?
9
There's new reporting on ABC that an IRS employee has "told the House Ways and Means Committee of possible efforts to improperly influence the process used by the IRS to audit presidential [trump's] tax returns." The Dems are launching an investigation.
And now more insider pressure against employees to 'hurry-up-and-do-this-unethical-thing before anyone finds out!' from upper management. Hum, maybe the Dems are gonna want to look at this, too.
All their corrupt business practices that they are trying to get established as soon as possible, especially before the 2020 election, are (all) coming light.
There's real change in the air!
Republican House and Senate members are calling out trump.
Republican House and Senate members are leaving the party!
Republican House and Senate members are considering presidential challenges.
Corrupt business practices are coming to public attention.
I'm getting excited.
10
"that lease sales in the refuge would generate $1.8 billion over a decade."
That's it? 1.8 billion is nothing.
7
Another example of Trump plundering our lands because he can.
8
There is no oil there.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/12/arctic-wildlife-refuge-tax-bill-oil-drilling-environment/
4
While of course $$$ drives this administration, in the cases where environmental regulation is required, it seems that...
... spite and hate towards nature also shape administration decisions.
4
Well, Donald Trump has a history of failures.
4
It appears to me that this administration is about to sell leases based on one (?) questionable test well. The last 150 years of this country is sullied with the greed and politics of oil. We have become the lead protagonist in wars over this entire planet in order to procure and secure this commodity for the better part of the last 100 years. Technology is a fungible thing. A test well in the 80's sets the price for leases today. Perhaps there are more hydrocarbons there then will be publicly admitted to. I am not advocating the destruction of this pristine environment through the exploration and exploitation of this pristine environment. I am a veteran who has put my life on the line for the greater war, the 200 year war for oil. In my humble opinion the leases are being extraordinarily undervalued intentionally to reap the downstream profits. The current administration is the latest tool to realize these profits. The preeminence of our nation is fueled by these hydrocarbons and their history. Great Britain rose to prominence on coal and could not successfully capture oil. This allowed, our ascension to world prominence. Oil may fuel our current lead in the world. But, if we fail to embrace the next technology, we will be embracing and following the leadership positions of the nation that succeeded in capturing the next energy technology. Oil is a short term project, (that harms the environment), long term strategic profits will be found in other technologies.
1
Greedy oil companies, and their Republican enablers in Congress, both pretending that the best science available - and our common sense - doesn't prove the existence of climate change.
How many documented degrees does our planet have to increase before Republicans, and we, wake up?
I say we, because whenever any of us vote for a Republican, we are voting for the death of planet earth as we know it.
6
Wildlife Refuges, although a small percent, are some of the most pristine, well managed public lands in our country. In Alaska, they hold the last migrating ungulate populations on Earth. They are considered untouchable places that represent what the Earth once was and support these large majestic mammals. This is a time of true sadness in our country.
9
“Putting a Positive Spin on Oil Exploration in the Arctic Refuge“ by Henry fountain and Steve Eder.
In this article, it is shown that oil that lies beneath the arctic is not worth the disruption it would bring to its environment. There wouldn’t be a huge playoff as initially believed, and destroying this arctic refuge is not worth 45 million. We need to make changes and we can start with this. All around us are movements like not using plastic straws that contribute to things like save the turtles, but saving this cold habit is could actually make a big difference. There are already issues like global warming and others dangers to cold climate wildlife and our greed for this limited payoff is not worth it. Save the cold climate homes, and you make a difference to help save the cold climate lives.
4
I consider the manipulation of data to defraud the American people an impeachable offense (to add to the pile).
15
Just wondering how much longer all Americans will be asked to sacrifice irreplaceable natural resources on our public lands in Alaska for the benefit of the few that live there and drink from the public trough like no others. Any other state pay their citizens to do nothing? So why should we pay them to destroy public lands that belong to all of us? Because they're used to it?
I'll take the refuge, thank you very much.
9
Please keep him at home.
9
Simon,
We don't want him either (most of us, that is).
7
Trump just brings in one "Big Win" after another, doesn't he? When will the nightmare end?
12
How many times, and how many millions of dollars have Americans have had to pay to clean up oil spills due to these companies negligence? Add insult to that injury, any down time, repair or upgrade costs are passed on to consumers. Add insult on top of insult, these conglomerate corporations receive even more money from American taxpayers via subsidies -aka corporate welfare!- all the while their CEO's receive outrageous annual bonuses. Exploitation in the name of profit regardless of who or what it hurts are actions Trump has always engaged in...
8
Of course this was all this hare-brained idea was ever about: money. Trump forever sees himself as the entrepreneur when his role calls for something he has never been able to be: statesman. He's all about what can be extracted, squeezed, exploited and monetized. Everything becomes a hideous zero sum game where the greatest feat is to make a pile of money for someone, ideally himself, and if not that, to maximize whatever he currently defines as his "ratings".
I think most of us are far beyond disgust, and this is but one more stinking dead fish on the pile. Still, we continue to hope and our hopes are dashed, over and over.
9
Since the development of fracking recoverable oil is everywhere. You don't need to go to the arctic and face the harsh environment. You just have to go to North Dakota, or maybe Utah.
1
Trump is only in the oval office for 2 reasons.
1) Enrich himself.
2) Enrich himself.
Yes the are the same.
12
Senator Lisa Murkowski is in trouble. What did she get from this deal?
When the glaciers of Greenland melt, they will raise the ocean's sea level 26 feet.
Which will put Mar-a-largo under water.
9
We built this system of politics, economics, and energy. Now let us see if we as Brer Rabbit can get loose of this Tar Baby. With consumer debt where it is, our propensity to talk things to death, it is doubtful we have the will.
90 million? Over 10 years?
That’s all it takes to decide to destroy nature that cannot be fixed?
Chump change!
Tax the rich and stop with the corporate welfare, there’s billions in them thar hills! Make the corps pay for the damage they create! That won’t happen in a world where the narcissistic sociopathic humans determine the fate of the mentally whole humans.
If the money came from the 1% nobody would come to harm and nature would be kept a bit more intact.
3
Henry Fountain is the master. And a decent guy. Curious. Honest. A gentleman. Folks, oil is the metaphor. The smallest living things are the message. Check your gut biome. We’re mining that, too. Symposium. The Hannah Arendt Center. Bard College. September 19 and 20 and maybe 21. Missing Microbes was the book to read. ORAL does not appear. We’re wrecking the planet and our smallest heritage. Can we reverse what’s going on? Can we control our greed? Henry Fountain and Fred Conrad are senior. I am 80. We owe it to the children. Let’s listen to AOC and Greta. Better, let’s listen to our conscience. We’ve trashed people of color. Now, we’re trashing all people. It’s all just crazy. I’d like to suggest two candidates. Amy Jean Klobuchar and Michael Farrand Bennet. Common Sense Ticket, either way. They get it. We all need to get it. We cannot have the moon. We must moderate everything in moderation. We cannot drain Earth of every mineral. We must talk. Care. Think. Pause. The Outlaw Ocean by Ian Urbana nails it. We’re just going about it without caring. Children are slaughtered. Nature is crushed. We’re killing the smallest living things and ourselves. Thank you, Henry.
3
Leave it to our conservative friends to try to conserve... absolutely nothing.
7
The truth is that we can't trust any data coming from the Trump administration.
Donald Trump is a man who pretended to be his own publicist when talking to reporters years ago.
He's a lying con man and is pushing scientists and other highly qualified career workers out of our government.
I hope they agree to come back after he gets voted out in 2020.
7
Lies, in the name of Greed, are still lies. This beautiful Planet Earth is dying right before our eyes from burning Coal and Oil, and Trump wants to stack his greedy deck, and burn more.
I think Republicans have grandchildren, too, but - maybe I'm wrong.
2
So Trump ignored science, dismissed environmental concerns, and lied in hopes of a quick buck? Gee, next you’ll tell me that water is wet.
2
Forcing the Department of Interior professionals to change the facts. Another impeachable offense. Come on Jerry Nadler, pedal to the metal !
3
Lies, political pressure and manipulation of data - just another day in Trumpville.
2
It's over. Thanks to the NYT and AOC I know it is over. Plan accordingly. The planet is dying. There is no turning back.
The government should be handing out free cyanide tablets.
Good luck to all.
I thought trump just wanted to evict more non white people and separate them from their children. I'm for Denmark buying us and setting us free from trump.
3
Alaska may be a diversion.
Trump's probably already ordered the Pentagon to gather a small, stealth army to take Greenland.
What's that uppity woman who runs Denmark gonna do, bomb the American patriots who faithfully stand guard over our nation's new oil rigs there?
Hey, Trump owns nukes. Let the Danes go file a complaint next week at the UN, right?
The Trump foresaw riches for whom?
While I'm not for opening up all of the northern arctic (yet, anyway) to oil exploration, it is preposterous to say that 'seismic studies....could harm polar bears..'.
Complete, unadulterated, propagandistic nonsense that displays an alarming lack of knowledge of scientific techniques.
That is akin to saying that if all the people in China jumped at the same time they could destroy the U.S.
The NYT should do a better job at fact-checking baseless assertions by people with an anti-development agenda.
@dmckj
I think the issue is that the seismic work is conducted during the winter when female polar bears give birth to their young in snow dens along the coastal plain. The acoustic energy generated by the vibroseis trucks may greatly disturb the bears in their dens if trucks are close to the dens. I'm not an expert in this area, but I don't know of documented cases in which this has happened during seismic exploration in the Prudhoe Bay area or in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, but again, that is the concern.
Reality falls short for Republicans. Yes, I've heard that one before. Look at the fraud they put in the Oval office and the inept excuses they're making while they contemplate voting in a doltish human wrecking ball for his second term.
3
Imagine the Republicans fudging the data to make it look like Americans would get $billions from plundering pristine ANWR!
Shocked, shocked to find out that we will get cents on the dollar.
Meanwhile the Republicans are doing all they can to hasten climate change. Fools!
4
Everything Trump touches dies.
3
I hope they do not find a darn drop.
1
Lying Liars and the Lying Liars Who Lie. (AKA the Trump Administration)
2
More of the conman Trumps lies.
The rape and pillage continues under this corrupt bought and paid for president.
Handing our public lands and heritage over to international oil and gas companies who take our resources and sell them overseas to feed their CEOs and shareholders endless greed.
And if you don’t think Trump and his corrupt family don’t have a few off shore bank account filling up nicely - your delusional
VOTE
3
I'm disappointed in how the headline does not due the gravity of this article justice. Come on, NYT.
By the time you could possibly develop and ship the oil from this area there will be no need for it. We are maybe two years from electric cars reaching initial purchase price parity with gas cars now add the much lower operating cost and they are no brainers. Talk to any Tesla owner and ask them if they would go back to gas very few would say yes to that one.
1
There is no possible positive "spin" that can be put on oil exploration in the Arctic. Let alone that we've already burned way too much fossil fuel for comfort, and have immense reserves in any case, it's impractical in a wide range of ways, in a place where weather can be extreme and at least one oil platform has gone astray. We do not have the means to clean up an oil spill there, as we did after the BP gulf disaster.
Real-world evidence is piling up on top of 40 years of neglect and ignorance, as we've overcome the collected wisdom of civilizations' hard-won knowledge by lobbying and lies.
It's getting late, and fossil fuels aren't even competitive with clean energy in any case.
Rising seas, overheated locations, floods, drought, migration of species, increases in pests, forests falling to greed and products we don't really need, the desire of illusion has taken over our common sense.
Dear god, please no! (and I speak as a tolerant atheist)
5
That the federal government would provide any additional opportunity for oil and gas production is a crime against humans and other creatures. Climate change is a humanitarian/ecological crisis. In opening the Arctic wildlife refuge to oil exploration and development, Trump, his Interior Department and Alaska's senators and congressman are engaged in a reprehensible initiative.
1
With essentially no data (1 seismic survey, and one well), I don't think there will be a rush for leases. Right wingers have a touching naivete about how much demand is out there, especially in an area with massive infrastructure issues.
Can an organization like The Nature Conservancy buy the leases? Can't we just leave some places alone?
1
So, where are the proceeds from these sales going? Are we funding anything that benefits all of us? Parks? Education? Roads? I remember that “W” wanted to extend tax cuts for the rich with the ANWR proceeds in 2005. Maybe Trump has something similar in mind?
2
there are riches in the Arctic refuge. just ones this administration does not recognize. clean air, wide open spaces, the special sounds of the arctic, darkness and northern lights, the tenacious, resilient, and autonomous people and animals which inhabit this space. not money, wells, industrial sounds, Trump towers or golf courses.
such tremendous damage this administration inflicts on everything it touches.
5
I have a nose for oil and I believe there is a significant deposit directly under two properties: the Trump National Doral Country Club Golf Resort and Schmooz Center, and also under Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue where a significantly large oily patch has long been recognized upstairs. As Americans, we should demand these parcels be offered for oil lease (air rights extra) or taken by eminent domain.
2
$1.8 billion over a decade? That's all? That's their argument? There are many individuals in the U.S. who could shell out that kind of money over a decade without even noticing. Will Buffet or Gates or someone please be so kind as to step in, but all the leases, burn them, and protect the last 1.5 million acres of pristine American land?
2
By the time Trump and the GOP are done, the sacking of Rome will look like a Sunday School picnic by comparison.
4
Oil and mineral extraction again rules over protection of our federal lands. Remember when Donald Trump, gloated, “We got Anwar!” with that special preening smirk he has! Having slipped the change, to the last protected refuge of Arctic habitat in Alaska; to be sold for oil leases, into the tax cut for the wealthy! Senator Lisa Murkowski, leading the way to the devastation of the native people, natural habitat and endangered species.
1
Amazing isn't it...that lying, deceit & ignorance don't equal expertise.
Tump the epitome of that truism, but also only one of endless repub examples.
Unbelievable how this admin doesn't listen to true experts, nor do most of those in the GOP or those who back that party.
Geologists at the USGS have known for several decades that it is highly unlikely there is more than 3-6 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the ANWR.
The nation currently uses about 7.5 billion barrels annually, so what's likely in ANWR is less than a year's worth of oil at current consumption rates.
Of course It would be pumped out a few million barrels a day if Big Fossil goes in and drills wells and starts production, so wells would last many years, but it is self evident it is not a long term answer to our energy needs.
And the risks to the pristine wilderness of a massive leak or spill is significant and not at all remotely worth it to any sane person.
Tump would destroy the planet if he thought it would lead to some type of adoration from his base and inflate his massive ego.
The rest of us have to get rid of him any way we peacefully can. Truly unbelievable what he's doing to the world.
Renewables of course are the only sensible new energy
sources to develop now. With a massive program needed now to change energy paradigms. Hope enough vote for sanity.
1
OK, so $1.8 billion (optimistic projection) is a lot of money? Depends on perspective: it'll buy you a little less than 20 F35 jet fighters (about a squadron) or about 1/3 of a Nimitz-class carrier, nicely equipped! And it's a mere rounding error in our projected $1 trillion+ annual budget deficit. For this we're compromising millions of pristine acres? C'mon...
4
The GOP has been trying to cut back MPG regulations.
Obviously, increasing MPG would end any rationale for drilling.
1
What about all the riches we would enjoy if we paid off the national debt.
@Tom
Dream on.
"The lofty original projection was just one element of a campaign within the administration to present in the best possible light the idea of opening the refuge’s coastal plain after decades of being stymied by Democrats and environmentalists. . . "
I don't see the Trump administration's prediction of "$1.8 billion, by a White House estimate" as "lofty", especially when "analysis of prior lease sales suggests that the new activity may yield as little as $45 million over the next decade."
I see that huge discrepancy as either delusional, ignorant or deliberately inflated to get the support the Republicans need in order to deplete the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska of its reach and plentiful oil and other natural resources.
It seems every time this administration asserts one claim or another, the end result falls far short of what they originally predicted or promised.
The trade wars would yield positive results.The tax cuts would yield a stronger economy. The Rollback of Auto Pollution Rules would be a "deregulation win for automakers that will keep down car prices for American consumers" yet 6 major automakers signed an agreement opposing this in CA.
Perhaps the resignation of Joe Balash, Interior deputy secretary who as head of the Bureau of Land Management and oversaw the leasing program is the first positive sign that this entire debacle will not move forward.
Why can't Alaska and Greenland and their plethora of natural, rich resources be left alone?
62
@Marge Keller
GREED. CORRUPTION. VOTER APATHY.
18
@Aspasia
Spot on! The trifecta of a downward spiral.
12
@Marge Keller
All claims are in the same grandiose trump tradition of overstating his wealth and property values; that everything he does will be the best, the greatest, and like you've never seen before.
12
In my view the worst thing about this administration (and that that is saying something) is its environmental record. A completely negative, backwards force attempting to destroy ALL of the progress made in the last 40 years with environmental stewardship. Basically anything that impedes making more money, such as environmental regulations which benefit all life, is seen as something to be removed. Any science that says otherwise is ridiculed and ignored. This ranges from abrogation of responsibilities with climate change, handing the EPA and other agencies to fossil fuel agencies, desecrating a national wildlife refuge, weakening endangered species protections, etc. etc. etc. What's next, legalizing commercial whaling? Maybe I shouldn't give them any ideas.
86
@JJK
Your comment is so spot on JJK!
The one issue which is extremely near and dear to my heart and brain is the environment and its protection and well being.
No one actually "owns" this country or land or any of its elements. We all are merely guardians and hopefully good stewards in keeping this planet and all within it healthy and a continuing of its existence.
Shouldn't we use, but not abuse? Shouldn't we replenish what we take if possible? Shouldn't we try and foster new growth and life when possible?
Without a healthy and thriving planet, no one will survive. Somewhere along the way, greed and disrespect for nature, the environment, and this planet has taken over.
I am hoping that at least one Democrat running for president will be as passionate, serious and determine to help and protect the environment as I am.
Once the environment is lost beyond hope and help, what else is really left for any of us?
Sorry for my rant.
I just wanted to say thanks for writing a great comment. I truly loved reading your thoughts and perspective.
11
As a geologist I have worked on ANWAR or the “Refuge” as some readers call it. Drilling results in the region did not find economic volumes of hydrocarbons. This is clear to anyone as the wells are classed as dry holes. This however is not uncommon and does not necessarily indicate additional exploration will also fail. Exploration technology has progressed significantly since the 1980s when earlier surveys were completed
New seismic surveys need to be conducted to determine ANWAR’s commercial viability. At this point the USGS is really just guessing about the potential. Some readers have suggested that seismic surveys will harm polar bears and other wildlife. This is not the case, land surveys do not use explosives, and are done with Vibroseis trucks which create a signal by vibrating the earth below the truck.
The administration should go forward with leasing so seismic data can be acquired now. Exploration requires a significant lead time. At the moment the USA is energy independent but the Permian Basin Shale Play is showing signs of decline. We will need potential arctic oil to remain independent in the future. This independence removes the need for US military intervention in the Middle East.
As far as the environmental concerns, one need look no farther than Purdue Bay where there is a thriving caribou herd.
1
@Frank Love
What we need is to get off carbon fuel so we stop the increase in temp. Harvesting more oil will just add more to the dangers of climate change.
Tell me how those caribou will survive when the arctic heats up?
In light of the rapid warming of the arctic, we have new information about climate change, and the news is not good. Since the arctic is warming at a much faster rate than expected, it would seem prudent to re-evaluate plans for developing this area. A more rational approach would suggest looking for reserves in areas less likely to be effected by extreme warming. Better yet, focus more on renewable sources of energy.
2
I'm old enough to remember the Exxon Valdez spill. It's still not cleaned up after 30 years. The earth's oil resources are finite, and we've already used more than we should have. In the end we have to make the transition to green renewables, so let's do it now, before we unnecessarily and tragically ruin the Arctic for living things. Remember the Exxon Valdez--leave the Arctic alone!
31
“Will it be a stupendous billion-dollar bid? Probably not,”
Oil companies will have their land men try to buy oil leases on the cheap early in the game. $25 an acre bonus is not uncommon for initial offers to land owners sitting atop the field.
If the play is developed and oil starts flowing, those same companies can resell that $25 land to other oil companies for market price. In Texas oil leases on proven land can go into the thousands of dollar per acre.
So the strategy here is for big oil not to generate much buzz, and then get the BLM leases for next to nothing with hopes of developing a few wells to either increase their proven reserves, or sell off some of their acres to other companies and make profits on the higher sales price. And those companies can also resell the acres they purchased for higher market value.
Uncle Sam and taxpayers who own these federal lands end up with their measly $25 an acre from the original lease bid.
13
Wow, 1.8% of the projected Federal Deficit for 2020. That's definitely enough money to justify the impact on the environment and prolong our dependence on fossil fuels...
12
The framing and content of this story is based on a false Neoliberal premise: economics should determine policy.
But this is really about preventing climate catastrophe - remarkably an issue not even mentioned in the story.
The scientists agree that we must Keep it in the ground!
24
Could you please name the environmental groups planning to challenge this in the courts? I would like to donate to their litigation funds.
We should not be investing in any sort of infrastructure or development involving fossil fuel. It's not only a waste of money, since the planet will enforce an environmental morality we seem unable to muster, but it's an insult to and crime against younger people and future generations.
32
Here is a "quick" result already available from "the scientists:"
The Arctic is providing irrefutable evidence that climate change is destroying the planet at a faster rate than previously predicted.
16
I just returned from 2 weeks in Arctic Refuge, hiking and floating in the Brooks Range just south of the coastal plain. It's worth returning to the original intent behind the preservation of this area - to preserve an ecological system intact - and to the Gwich'in name for the coastal plain - "the sacred place where life begins". I, for one, hope we choose the future over today.
24
I've never understood the obsession with drilling in Anwar. We have a glut of domestic oil and natural gas from fracking, but we have to drill in ANWAR because... We have to stick it to the environmentalists? This is the type of thinking I would expect from Mr. Burns on the Simpsons, not an actual government or profit driven enterprise.
25
@Todd nice monty reference
I chose this article because this topic interests me.I do not believe that this is a good idea. Oil drilling is already a problem, why ruin another habitat over it? We as americans are smart enough to find ways not to use oil, even if it takes time. There are bigger problems that we need to be adressing, and not destroying habitats.
7
We GIVE $20billion a year to the oil industry, calling the largess "subsidies." The world tips on the precarious edge of cliffs of disaster with a climate going chaotic. Now Trump wants to GIVE our public lands to the oil giants. Are we fools? Forty percent of us qualify, IMHO.
23
In attempts to be balanced, the NYT is subtly misleading and distorting the issue. "Opponents of exploration have said the 19-million-acre refuge, one of the largest expanses of pristine land in the United States, could be forever damaged in pursuit of oil that would bring little benefit to American taxpayers."
This fact is not disputable. The Arctic would, not could, be permanently damaged. And by attributing what is fact as opinion to someone with an agenda further negates the finding. You can argue all you want about whether the oil is worth forever degrading the Arctic, but don't pretend it won't.
So, if the Times wants to be neutral, the language needs to say:
"The 19-million-acre refuge, one of the largest expanses of pristine land in the United States, would be forever damaged in pursuit of oil. Opponents say the resulting oil would bring little benefit to American taxpayers."
16
To call out a contested declarative statement like that would also required an attribution or it would not qualify as reporting but opinion.
We as humans have and are being so careless with the Earth for the sake a making money that I sometimes feel we deserve to go extinct--which we will if we continue with our current ways.
4
Trump and his cronies have this notion that there is a El Dorado that has been denied to developers because of Obama, the EPA and the Interior Dept.. Just let these developers have their way and the country will be headed for a golden age of Trump brilliance. Destroy pristine land in MN to allow a Brazilian billionaire to dig up the copper there. Trump's drive for energy domination is little more than a suicide pact to unleash the worst effects of climate change.
8
Slim pickings for the many, riches for the few. It's the republican anthem all over again, and again, and again.
7
As written by Steven Foster.
CEOs must not buy Christmas presents for their family. They surely don't care about the future of the planet for their children and grandchildren. Trump? Well, he goes along for the photo op.
2
Please don’t call the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge ANWR. If one wants/needs to shorten the name, call it “The Refuge.” That’s what it is. Language matters, and in this case it really matters for people who may envision a wildlife refuge as a vast, desolate plain,
5
This information frustrates me. Not every piece of land in America needs to be exploited for money---ANWAR is a very special pristine environment and should be left as is. We can talk later after all the permafrost melt and the animals die as a result of global warming....
2
The real pros have already made the big bucks, sold out and moved on, the "investors" are now holding the bag. So it's all good.
Drilling in pristine areas , rolling back endangered species act , ignoring climate change, all nasty greedy selfish acts pushed by this administration, AS IF , their intentions are to destroy our nation as quickly as possible!
8
In an effort to role back the clock on the history of this endeavor, I am going back to the earliest days of the Bush43 administration. When former NJ governor, Christine Todd Whitman, was appointed as director to the EPA (2001-03), one of her first duties was to fly to Tokyo to support the Kyoto Agreement whereby she told those in attendance that the United States would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies to fight climate change.
According to then-Treasury Sec. Paul O'Neill (in his book, The Price of Loyalty), while Ms. Whitman was in Tokyo, VP Cheney got a thrashing from his friends in the oil and gas industry with demands to "shut her up." By the time she returned, Bush and Cheney pulled out of the Kyoto agreement.
Next stop: at the time Bush43 was planning to drill in ANWAR, estimates of how much oil was there varied widely. And, in estimating the cost of getting the oil vs. the value of the oil, it appeared it would cost more to get it than its actual worth.
Given Cheney's insistance on his former employer, Halliburton, as primary contractor for that pipeline, it appeared this was more about infrastructure income for Halliburton, including the cost and time to put it together and, when the supply runs out, dismantling that pipeline (if at all).
Sen. Murkowsky may see a jobs package but, at what cost to the refuge and the planet? Plus, drillers have had a bad reputation over several years when it comes to oil spills and leaks.
What could go wrong, right?
14
Be serious: just the Administration’s proposal could move the shares and bonds of Halliburton and its ilk enough for the well connected to make a quick killing and then wing down to Mar-a-Lago to cackle with their cronies about the coup and how little tax they would pay on it.
1
Halliburton has never been in the pipeline construction business.
A few months ago young climate activist Greta Thunberg was asked if she was more hopeful after seeing the reaction to her advocacy of action on climate change. She responded no, that emissions keep rising and that is all that matters.
The carbon cycle for the last 2 million years was doing 180-280ppm atmospheric CO2 over 10,000 years and we’ve done more change than that in 100 years. The last time CO2 went from 180-280ppm global temperature increased by around 5 degrees C and sea level rose 130 meters. (graph of the last 400,000 years of global temperature, CO2 and sea level)
One amplifying feedback alone out of dozens, loss of albedo or heat reflectivity from Arctic summer sea ice melt, over the last several decades has been equivalent to 25 percent of the climate forcing of anthropogenic CO2. And that will continue to increase as that ice disappears by mid century.
The Titanic sank because by the time the lookout called the warning the ship had too much momentum to turn. The Earth has a lot more momentum, e.g. we've already likely locked in ~6 meters of sea level rise from the marine sectors of Greenland and West Antarctica, and decade to decade warming in the near term is also locked in.
That momentum is building and the higher we let global temperatures rise the greater the risk of them going really high as amplifying feedbacks strengthen.
17
@Erik Frederiksen
Missing graph
http://www.ces.fau.edu/nasa/images/impacts/slr-co2-temp-400000yrs.jpg
1
I have visited the North Slope and become acquainted with several Exxon-Mobil executives in Anchorage. The bottom line is that the world price for oil is low and the costs of extraction are high. Exxon has proven reserves that they have not exploited because it is not economical to do so. The Alaska pipeline is running far below capacity and has been for years. Given this situation and the fact that there are no proven reserves in the ANWR, there will not be much interest in bidding on leases.
I find it ironic that it is basic economics that may save the ANWR and not environmental concerns. Mr. Trump seems oblivious to the fact that the market for coal is shrinking and that no oil company will bid on leases that will not be profitable. Trump cannot by force will make us use more coal nor make oil companies spend money on leases for drilling rights they do not need and cannot profit from.
29
Aside from this being a total disaster in the making, it's time we put a moratorium for the trump administration to act on anything without first approval of congress. The president has shown his word means nothing. His track record in "business" told us that. With his daily display of incompetence, and disregard for the future of of country and the world should be all the proof we need. The one thing trump has taught us is that voting matters. If the electorate gets out like we should trump will just be a bad memory. With a very long hangover. VOTE 2020!!!!!
21
The outcry for drilling up there seems to be coming mostly from politicians. Obviously, the oil companies have looked at the results of the test well that was drilled years ago and realize that there isn't much profit to be made up there (probably little oil and huge production costs). If there was a huge quantity of marketable oil, the oil companies would be leading the "drill, baby, drill" chants instead of Sarah Palin and other geologically ignorant people.
16
well spoken, like a texan, john. thank you. fortunately, the corporate world self-regulates in these deals. the market always, always follows the smart business and, in turn, the dollars.
2
Not everything on the planet is for sale just to make $$$$$$$$$ I'm guessing he saw lots of minerals and oil in Greenland and there was more to his land grab than is being told - he saw oil $$$.
Thank goodness Antarctica has environmental protections on it. Totally irresponsible all this drilling for oil when the President should be thinking electric cars, trams, NZ is even trialling an electric powered tug boat for guiding boats into harbour. It's easy money drilling for oil and he should be growing the economy instead of 'drill baby drill'.
For someone who is very nationalistic you'd think he'd wouldn't be so bad mannered as to say he wants to buy Greenland. It takes a lot of laws and effort for nations to protect their environment.
Most of your exports go to Europe and Trump is creating bad will by being huffy. It's the sort of statement you'd expect from citizen joe Bloggs but not from someone in his position as he is representing the USA people and his statement and cancellation of his visit is an embarrassment to all the mature people in the USA. and to think he has the nuclear codes! the mind boggles!
4
There is a big problem with NYT comment sections such as this. While intelligent, thoughtful and very helpful comments are expressed and shared, it is exasperating to think that the sharing ends in these pages and articulated only in limited venues that matter beyond the NYT readership. Is there a way to distill the useful ideas generated in comment sections, as well as those gleaned from your own reporting, and then market/distribute them for syndication off market? I understand that there may be limited income potential for NYT to syndicate material to areas that are not loaded with potential subscribers. But could NYT find ways and justification for shedding light to those hard to illuminate places like rural America, the deep South, impoverished urban enclaves and other underserved communities—- gratis et amor? Subjects should be informational rather than political, simple, brief and memorable. I assure you that there will always be enough of us to support you with our continued subscriptions for your efforts to spread important knowledge. Even the Pulitzer recognizes public service. Right?
13
@Demopublican from New York
I thought the art of discussion is why people have been able to post comments. Reading the comments no matter how in your view are ignorant or silly it provides useful information so that people can further their understanding of a topic. They then can further increase their knowledge by researching and taking the weekly quiz.
We listen to Trump state false truths everyday and the media still covers his ideas, lets us know what is true and what is false. We all learn something from the untruths .
The NYT is for everyone who wants to be a part of the world, increase their knowledge base on all subjects not just for elites who know everything.
If your so offended dont read the comments. No one is making you.
There is a way- Conversation.
Go out and talk to people.
Make an unconventional hire.
Instead of unpaid interns- pay your interns.
Smile at the waitress and the nurse and the cop and the bus driver- thank them.
1
This was nothing more than a diversion away from the gun control issue. The only reason he even considered this had nothing to do with anything other than Trump treating the White House like his own personal real estate business. He simply sees money to be made (for himself) from the minerals that lie underground on Greenland. Why has the Emoluments Clause not been mentioned regarding this folly?
9
The Emoluments Clause HAS been front and center, for millions of voters who pay attention, since Inauguration Day. The topic has failed to draw attention from the corrupt House of Representatives, upon which this oversight responsibility falls.
2
@Jackson Goldie To clarify for you, I am acutely aware that its been mentioned many times since he entered office - I was referring to this. particular. incident. period.
This whole Greenland farce is a desperate attempt by Trump to deflect attention from all that is wrong in the country, and with him. Why do the media keep falling for his feints?
6
So ruining a unique wildlife and nature reserve for ever is worth a few of Trump’s golf weekends. What a deal maker!
5
keep suing.
5
you need to look no further then Shell Oil spending 8 billion $ over 5 years and coming up with NOTHING. CASE CLOSED. VOTE HIM OUT LOCK HIM UP.
10
i cannot wait for this administration to be over!
6
So,
1. Trump says this is the best economy the US has ever had, but he still wants to “temporarily” decrease payroll taxes...as a “safety” measure?
2. Trump thinks global warming is a hoax, but now he’s looking into buying Greenland since access to inland areas and resources has recently increased...because the ice is melting across the country?
I recall the old joke that an “agnostic” is someone who doesn’t believe in God...but prays just in case! Welcome to the Agnostic-in-Chief.
And 40% of Americans are STILL clinging to this clown?!
5
@Tony
"Liberal tears" are far more important than ethics, humanity, your own personal well being or the future well being of your children. It's the republican voter way.
It is just plain silly to drill in the Arctic when enough petroleum to tip climate change into uncontrolled positive feedback is situated in Venezuela.
2
Hint to Trump: Venezuela is oil rich but distressed merchandise. Now’s a good time to make a lowball offer to buy the place, possibly with financing from MBS and Putin who are oilmen anyhow. Best if all, Denmark can’t refuse.
He's got a year and a few months to do as much damage to our country as he can. Is this really driven by his hatred of Obama? His hatred of humanity? He's burning the house down with him inside. Everything is backwards. We should be thinking of ways NOT to use oil.
9
Apparently we won't learn any lessons, at all. See "Mukluk" 1982, the most expensive dry hole ever
Talk about bad data ...
1
So we're the ruining the environment to fund SOME of Trump's golf vacations....
5
I'm still waiting for this current crowned bestest leader ever to drain the swamp. When said swamp serves him, the greatest ever swoones and praises. When threats, bullying and minions can't get it up, I mean together; the bestest casts blame. When atmospheric O2 is too low for human's perhaps the last gasp will be, "I'm the richest!"
1
So much for your wonderful wilderness, huh, Ivanka?
2
The reason why the WH targeted the arctic refuge was not to make money out of it. They did it to troll liberals. That is what this WH is, the political equivalent of an online troll. It is laughable that we keep talking about how Russians are spreading misinformation and trying to divide people. They are nothing compared to the GOP and its media outlet Fox News. When is congress going to do something about this far more serious problem than any foreign interference or is it too painful to admit that Putin is only a part of the problem?
6
so $4.5 million dollars a year gross profit is worth destroying the wilderness. Disgraceful and disgusting. Shame on those people.
4
This administration's mad rush to destroy ANWR and eliminate one of the most pristine landscapes left on Earth is plainly unjustified.
We are talking about a small uptic in annual revenues for oil companies, at best, so even if one thinks the financial benefit to that industry merits much consideration, there's not much case for this policy.
Of course, Congress knew this for many years. It wasn't until the shady deal pushed through as a rider to a budget bill that enough oil-soaked politicians got what they wanted.
Some day this country will deeply regret this shameful effort to wreck one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
As with most things involving Trump and his minions, though, it will likely be years before we come to terms with this totally avoidable idiocy.
106
@CastleMan
"As with most things involving Trump and his minions, though, it will likely be years before we come to terms with this totally avoidable idiocy." I hope we at least come to that realisation.
However, given the fact that idiots voted for this maniac and given that there will always be a wellspring of idiots, it's likely that whoever is President then, may be blamed - and will most definitely be blamed if it's someone who holds ideals that are sagacious and therefore benefit the greater good (people, wildlife AND environment).
I hope this horror and humiliation ENDS next year.
4
I've worked in several north slope villages over the past 18 years and this is a bad, bad idea. Alaskans (think Houston Texas oil money) are for exploitation whenever it means money in their pockets and with the PFD driving voting preferences, there is no end in site. Toss in that the State is also broke and our governor buying votes for $3000 each. Sullivan, Murkowski and Young are feckless. Meanwhile, I've spent 10 years working with 12 federal and state agencies trying too permit a 40 lb. micro hydro system on my property to mitigate oil transfers across the Wrangell Narrows, without results. Our governments are truly broken.
107
@Doug Leen
One commenter here asked about 'environmentalist candidates' who readers could back. It's a tough go,
when Big Oil is behind most successful campaigns
(although I think our current Recall Dunleavy campaign sort of caught them by surprise). I would recommend for starters that readers who are interested in Alaska politics (keeping in mind that Alaska is the only reason the US is an 'arctic nation')
think about supporting Alyse Galvin's candidacy against congressman Don Young, who has been in office since I was a kid (and I'm almost Medicare age !)
Alyse is not an environmentalist but she is an Independent, who ran a good race and came within striking distance of The Don last election cycle. She
is our best bet for replacing him, and needs support !
10
@irene. Thanks Irene--you "outed" me as I just sent Alyse some financial support and did last time around. I'm also an independent and called her and spent an hour talking to her--she is a mother of four and lifetime Alaskan. And Dunleavy's day's are numbered. I hope the NYT follows AK politics more as we are clearly on the front lines here both environmentally and politically.
13
this ad paid for by the committee to elect alyse galvin.
some folks might argue mr. dunleavy is merely following through on what he has been saying for some time now. it's all about fiscal responsibility and not spending more than we take in, some could say.
i've never once applied for or received a pfd: votes aren't always for sale.
According to the article drilling would produce about a billion dollars over ten years. Do we really need a hundred million dollars a year so bad that we should debase the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for it? If it was a hundred billion a year there might be an argument for it. People are now buying estates and condos for a hundred million dollars so in the big scheme of things it's not that much. Whatever that hundred million dollars a year is needed for could it could be taken from the seven hundred billion dollar a year defense budget. The defense budget appears to be bloated enough to skim off five billion for a wall so I'm thinking one hundred million ain't going to affect our military capability.
9
@lfkl
Here is another thought. That hundred million goes to the oil companies, not to the US government. So it won't affect us at all.
It's just a way for the oil cos to drain every single bit of profit from the ground while the planet heats up.
1
The hope is that this plan will go the same way as the rollback of automobile emissions. If you are an oil company CEO you realize that it would take years to plan and explore test wells in the refuge at great expense. Since it is quite likely that the next president will be Democrat who cares about the environment you have to realize that rescinding permission to drill would be one of the first things on the agenda of a new administration. Why spend hundreds of millions drilling just when the project will likely have to be cancelled.
6
All I want as I drive up Ocean Drive past Mar-A-Lago is the sight of oil rigs along the horizon. Florida is the greatest NIMBY state in the US. It’s economy depends on tourism which depends on cars and gas but it wants others to provide that gas.
13
There is precious little oil in or around Greenland. There is some gas but it would be uneconomical to explore for it. I am a geologist and I know.
7
With an Abundance of natural gas, why would we want to spoil natures treasure, and the habitat of wild life.
We have already destroyed the richest earth known to man , by developers of Malls & housing.
We can never replace what nature gives us, lets save it for our children & other generations.
4
There must be a change of mindset. Indiscriminate extraction of natural resources simply to justify creation of jobs is shortsighted. National planners and business leaders should try to respond more creatively to the challenges of environmental protection and conservation of natural resources. They should pay attention to the big challenge of CREATING OF NEW JOBS that are engaged in renewing, recycling, redesigning, repurposing and creating new markets and channels for distributing used clothing, furniture, housewares, etc, anything that has already been manufactured from nature. Let the American best values of ingenuity, hard work, fair play and goodwill prevail once more.
1
I always hear that the oil companies know how to drill and not affect the area. Tell that to the people in the gulf coast area with the PB oil spill.
5
Let's keep focused - and urge representatives to stay clear eyes and focused.
Take Interior deputy secretary Balash's words to heart:
“One of the things that I have found absolutely thrilling in working for this administration,” said Balash,“is the president has a knack for keeping the attention of the media and the public focused somewhere else while we do all the work that needs to be done on behalf of the American people.”
12
Put a price on carbon and end the ANWR drilling fiasco. If it costs more, demand goes down, and they don’t drill.
Give Americans a monthly, gradually increasing Carbon Dividend, including Alaskans!
2
I wish this piece had referenced the Gwich'in people, whose culture and livelihood depend on the caribou of the coastal plain in the refuge. They're leading the fight against exploration and drilling in this critical area, and doing so ably on many fronts.
I stand with the Gwich'in!
8
Who would trade an irreplaceable cultural landscape the size of South Carolina- a landscape that is home and essential subsistence grounds to Gwich’in and Inupiaq native people- for Trump’s failing golf course in Scotland? Or one half of a new F-35 fighter jet? Because this is the latest projected revenue for selling off America’s last protected arctic ecosystem to oil companies: about $45 million.
Of course, the values of the intact Refuge go far beyond simple economics. I’ve spent 30 years working in the Arctic Refuge and Inupiaq and Gwich’in villages. I’ve seen time and time again how special this cultural landscape is.
But even if you disagree with me on the many environmental and cultural reasons to protect the Refuge, it is clear that drilling in the Arctic Refuge fails even basic economic cost/benefit analysis.
7
It’s time to turn to renewable non-polluting forms of energy to save our planet. Leave the remaining oil and carbon in the earth. Only the rich oil and coal barons are benefiting from their exploitation of the earth. Earth belongs to all of us and we need to preserve it for future generations.
2
In the early '00's, the company I worked for was bought by an Alaska Native Corporation (ANC); the one that controlled the area around the ANWR and stood to benefit the most. At a time when Lower 48 Native Americans were protesting oil transport and fracking, Hawaii natives were protesting ocean pollution and damage, ANCs were promoting "drill baby drill." Their president came to meet us, and nearly his entire presentation was about how their mission was to "unlock the resources in the ANWR." I resigned from that company. This article doesn't mention the role ANC's are playing in this, or what their cut of the drilling leases stand to be.
5
@Laura
An important point, as there is a lot of conflict between the Gwich'in and the Inuit and their respective Native corporations, who view ANWR through totally different sets of spectacles. Because of oil revenues, the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC), representing the Inuit, is a financial powerhouse compared to Doyon Corporation, representing the Gwich'in. (Although all of the Corporations are required to share a portion of their revenues with all the other Corporations, but there is an obscure caveat which would -- wait for it -- exempt the ASRC from sharing revenues created by developing ANWR). A huge topic, but worth exploring.
For starters, it would be useful to abandon the convenient but diminishing (and militaristic) acronym of 'ANWR' and always refer to the land by its proper (English) name -- the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Even better would be to refer to it by an Indigenous place name . . .
1
What would happen if the dumpster held an auction in ANWR and no one came? Would that be the end of the madness?
Perhaps now that Jamie Dimon and his corporate friends seem to be having a spasm of conscience, the oil companies knowing, the potential dangers to the globe if this area is destroyed, will decide to man up and protect the Wilderness forever.
From a business perspective, given the lack of any actual data on available reserves in the area, coupled with potential costs and the weakening market for traditional power products, this is probably not a strong investment anyway.
Add to the that backlash from everyone from the Tribes to rational politicians to investors to 16 year old girls calling them out, seems as though passing on this faux deal is the best choice for the industry.
Think of this: The Oil Industry as ECO Heroes.
1
Meanwhile back at the ranch in the US the EPA is being gutted (already air quality is plummeting), the CFPB is being dismantled, Dodd–Frank is being compromised, the deficit is going through the roof, huge swaths of public lands are being sold off, world free trade is being seriously assailed, the justice department is being revamped with a slew of GOP biased judicial appointees, and all while the nation’s intelligence agencies and the FBI are being disemboweled.
8
Burning just the known reserves of fossil fuels would melt the entire Antarctic Ice Sheet, paper below, so we don't need to be discovering more fossil fuels.
The paper notes "sea-level rise exceeding 3 m per century during the first millennium".
"Combustion of available fossil fuel resources sufficient to eliminate the Antarctic Ice Sheet"
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/8/e1500589
5
Another example of the Trump/GOP/Federal government looking out for the interests of the American people. How many more examples must be provided before Congress doesn't start standing up and protecting America's interests. After Trump leaves the White House, he is going to be remembered by more people than any of his predecessors, an example of a president that should have never been, a president only concerned for his personal interests and financial gains, a person so removed from protecting and guarding the interests of America. It will serve to remind us of what the word "evil" really means in politics.
4
So we opened up the Arctic to oil and mineral exploration so the Treasury could get $1.8 billion. Is that all? I really hope its worth the risk. If I were Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Mark Zuckerberg I would offer to chip in and offer the Treasury $1.8 billion to close it back up.
2
The continuous plundering of the earth will lead to our extinction. By drilling in ANWR, we not only destroy a pristine wilderness that is necessary for the animals that live there, but we would endanger life itself. There is already so much damage we have done to this earth that, even if man were the last species left on earth, we would perish. There would be no food chain left to sustain us. It might be hard to wrap one's head around such a dire forecast, but the truth is that the more we deny it, the faster it will occur. Imagine yourself among the last living things on earth. You would be witness to the ugliest outcome ever imagined. Barren land, searing heat, inedible plastic waste all around, and nothing to eat except your fellow survivors. We can not afford to drill for every last drop of oil left on this planet. Fossil fuels, like whale oil before it, need to be replaced by renewable energy that doesn't require the burning or drilling of anything. The amount of energy wasted in the process of using fossil fuels is incredible, not to mention noisy. Let's stop this cycle of destruction before we can't!
2
Sacrifice one of the few pristine wilderness tracts on the plant to get a few more years of oil so we can pollute the planet with carbon instead of leaving it in the ground? Why? for the 1% who already have billions of $$ to hoard more?
This is corruption and insanity.
Our descendents will look back at what we have done and hate us for it.
3
We don’t need any more oil. What we need is a stable climate back.
2
Dear Mr. Trump- instead of buying Greenland and opening more of Alaska to drilling, why not buy Alberta (for free). Given the province's distain for Justin Trudeau, plus the fact that Alberta's massive oil reserves are sitting ducks for export south make this deal a no brainer.
2
People in this evil administration must wake up every morning (assuming they can sleep) thinking, "Hmmm, what can we ruin today?" It's one damaging move after another, and this attempt to foul the Arctic Refuge is just one in a long and sadly continuing cavalcade of efforts to destroy all the progress that has been made over the past decades.
2
The Alaska National Oil Reserve is already about 4,000,000 acres larger than the nearby Wildlife Reserve.
If there's something beautiful and useful, in the world, there's a human being who will exploit it, and ruin it for everyone else. This is the history of mankind. I'd say this planet need us to leave.
3
1.8 billion is considered a "windfall" by this White House? Mr. Trump is on course to borrow over a trillion dollars to cover this year's deficit spending. This, and he thinks he can buy Greenland from Denmark. Things get crazier by the day.
5
Ms. Murkowski has some explaining to do. What did she gain by this fraudulent scam and when did she gain it?
2
Ah, the disappointing assessments for oil in the refuge explains Trump's interest in Greenland! "Nice island you got there, Denmark. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it."
Maybe what he wants is the water when Greenland's glaciers melt? Nah. But maybe what he wants is to keep Russia and/or China from gaining access to the Atlentic access to the Northwest Passage?
President Trump’s expressed desire to acquire Greenland demonstrate something extraordinary about Mr. Trump as an American President. This is one more reason why I think President Trump will have very special place in American history among the great Presidents. This is exactly how our greatest of presidents thought and thus defined their prominence in our history─ by their effort to expand American territory and acquisition of more land for America. Thomas Jefferson purchased the former French Louisiana, adding millions upon millions of precious land to the original thirteen colonies. And sent forth his Lewis-Clark his expedition to Western territories. President George Washington firmly believed that no American can fully realize benefits of his rights─ as articulated in the US Constitution─ unless he possessed his own property, home, farm or homestead. It is from “land” that all the rights of Americas derive from. Go ahead and you can laugh and ridicule President Trump─ as it was done to others before him, with Louisiana Purchase or buying of vast Alaskan wilderness by President Andrew Johnson. This is exactly the “right stuff” and “right mind- set” that made an American President, a great chief of the American people.
Besides Denmark has long neglected Greenland, and it's native population. Mr. Trump can offer each of 56,000 Native Greenlanders a million dollars each if they chose to become American. I hope and pray he succeeds...
@ChandraPrince - The "land" frontier is closed, ChandraPrince, as well as imperialism and colonialism. This is why we have public lands (no thanks to Trump, who is trying to privatize them) and sovereign nations, which decide their own futures. Trump just hasn't received the memo.
Our frontier now is in the realm of ideas, for which there are no limits. The greatness of presidents is now measured in achieving peace, promoting the general welfare, and preserving the great tapestry of life on Earth. Trump will not make that list.
4
Trump talks. The world listens. Everyone talks about what he said. But nothing gets done. And then he says something else...
Now that Greenland has shut him down maybe Trump should visit the moon where his Space Force might be based.
Every morning we wake up to a new outrage or insane ‘idea’ or a new country or group of people being humiliated or targeted by the administration that controls the White House. Trump is playing Monopoly, while the rest of the world is imploding He is literally mad. It is horrifying. No gun control, let’s buy Greenland instead. Please stop reporting the feverish thoughts of a mad man. Cover climate change, gun control, immigration, peace issues. Don’t mention his name. The rambling of a mad man, even if he is president, is not news.
2
All of this storm und drang for the capture of a commodity that at its best will provide relatively little for the Treasury coffers but “contribute” much more to the degradation of the atmosphere and to global warming.
Is this Administration nuts or what?
2
Greed is what this is all about: the greed of corporations beholden to shareholders, politicians beholden to PAC money, and Alaskans who shun paying taxes. Worse, this is the greed of the present generation who care little about our posterity and what we will leave for them.
73
The past few years of the Trump administration have taught me that there is no limit to human greed.
2
It's important to remember that the arctic tundra - the land covering ANWR - is EXTREMELY fragile.
A small oil spill spill could damage thousands of acres. The hot oil is over 100 degrees when it comes out of the well, the tundra, at only 4 feet down, is frozen year around and the top for most of the year. The oily, melted tundra would become a gooey swamp.
The tundra heals slowly. Tracks left by cautious research vehicles decades ago are still visible today. Construction activity - roads, airstrips, camps, drilling sites, and pipelines - leave a large footprint and area of devastating damage.
I would like to see a clause in any sale contracts that require the interloper to return the ground to pristine condition. But it won't happen and that is evidence enough that the leases should not go forward.
19
If there were ten pristine Arctic wildlife refuges, one might consider despoiling one for oil. But there is only one, and it offers in the future a potential of a few months of consumption supply at best. There is an oil surplus in the world. Why is it even being considered?
48
@Ernie Chisamore
The one word answer to your question is unfortunately
the same answer to many other similar questions...money.
Sooner or later Trump will be out of office...and unless Ivanka or one of her brothers run..the Trumps will be out of the White House. Whoever the next President will be will really inherit a mess to straighten out after this disaster of an Administration. Why did so many of us think Voting for a President endorsed and aided by Russia was such a good idea?? So far he hasn't achieved anything ...from Mexico not paying for the Wall ...to the tariffs and trade war that have threatened our economy. Kim Jung Un has not Denuclearized...and who can forget all the hirings,firings, resignations etc. in his dysfunctional administration. Why would anyone support the idea of risking damage to Alaska for oil we don't need and are trying to get away from using?? Well I can see how the oil companies would think it was a good idea...but I thought Trump drained the Swamp? What's next for him to drain...Alaska's resources ??
54
Please stop for a moment and focus on the damage that has been done: reversing compassionate refugee policy, separating families, tearing up environmental, worker and consumer protections, preventing women from getting health care, weakening our standing abroad, exacerbating our divisions and blowing out the deficit—just to name a few “accomplishments.”
5
@Dave
". . . oil we don't need and are trying to get away from using??"
But we don't need to use it. We can now sell that oil to overseas buyers.
That's the neat thing about unbridled capitalism and the associated exploitation of public resources.
It allows big money to make even bigger money.
1
@Dave
What are you going to do to turn out the vote for th Democratic candidate And to make sure hack-proof PAPER ballots are in place before November 2020?
Lying is a matter of policy in the Trump administration. Exaggerate, twist, hide... whatever it takes to fool us rubes and get what they want. That's just the way they roll. Part of their ongoing lies is that the Arctic Refuge is "ugly wasteland," when in reality it is among the last pristine glories of nature.
47
WHY? Why must this administration destroy every bee, animal, piece of public land and all human decency? Where's my cut? Oh? Nothing for us? Just for the oil companies and trump's pocket? Have we had enough of this? Who is going to stop it? A mentally unbalanced president controlled by the Koch bros and other extremely greedy people are destroying our earth. And then he wants Greenland and cancels relations with Denmark because he can't have it. Anyone else feel sick?
88
@lulu roche: Yes, I sure do.
Living for November 2020!
2
Believe nothing that comes out of falsified studies from this administration. Fact check everything.
32
Why is all this not surprising come from the Trump Administration?
No doubt this is exactly how Trump advanced a building proposal to investors. Tell the good stuff, hide the bad stuff, and lie about everything else.
The essence of Trumpism.
Heck, it's in his book, why should we be surprised?
Statecraft as Stagecraft.
26
@Paul McGlasson
"Heck, it's in his book"....
Thanks. That one made me laugh. I'll bet Xi, Putin, and now Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark have all read the book just to try and figure out what this guy is all about.
Even if ANWR had all the oil in the world, and it does not, how do you put a price on the pristine wilderness that would be permanently damaged, at a time when we are already losing wild spaces all over the country (and the planet)? What is it worth to pillage land that belongs to all Americans, and not to oil prospectors or crooked politicians?
29
Let’s boycott any and all companies who exploit ANWR.
24
@midwesternGoose
Problem is that so many can't be bothered. Even when Wells Fargo and Volkswagen for instance are flat out deliberately robbing them they won't or can't change.
1
When someone expresses the hate and anger you have and is famous and powerful, how can you not ride their coat tails? When your team wins and you cheer, how do you not feel like you're great too? Sadly, that's why Trump will win in 2020 unless those opposing him dig in and find a candidate that allows his followers to feel right again (no pun intended).
3
What a leader! What a guy! Let's tear up this amazing wilderness for an extra $45 million. Since the US government spends $6.8 million per minute, this means running the show for about 7 minutes.
trump is this horror that is devouring the Earth. There is no limit to the destruction he is causing.
38
@Plennie Wingo
Trump has spent more on his golfing vacations than the oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is worth.
2
"The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world." Alan Ginsberg
18
The idea here is to destroy the arctic directly and indirectly and to do it proudly and loudly. What better way to "own the libs" and their children and their grandchildren and, perhaps, with enough assault weapons, denial of health care, removal of environmental safety standards, nuclear weapons proliferation, who knows? Trump and his Republican corporate allies can purge the entire earth of liberals, indigenous people, Democrats, Haitians, Mexican rapists, drug dealers and users, and everyone who is disloyal to blind faith Trumpism. There may be collateral damage, but, hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained, RIGHT?
31
Drill in the Middle East, frack in Texas, or...freeze in the Arctic? Even as the North Sea slows down, going north by north sounds like a tough row to hoe. Kazakhstan is cold enough.
1
The only economy that Siberian President Donald Trump, Sr. cares about is hidden from the American people in his income tax returns and business accounting financial records.
Russia if you are listening can you share that information. North Korea? Iran? China? Syria?
23
As the Greenland fiasco makes abundantly clear, Trump sees Earth itself as just another Trump building project.
That is the very essence of insanity.
41
A good portion of America has fallen for Donald Trump and his band of con men. Oil companies, who have to put real money into the ventures, should be smarter I would think.
15
The state of Alaska gets half the lease payments. This has been the norm in the past, but really, the other states need to start complaining; is Utah going to get half of those leases around the Bears Ears property? Does West Virginia, Kentucky, get half the coal revenues, Minnesota for the proposed drilling around that Boundary Waters treasure?
Is there going to be a minimum bid required when the auction begins, or will it be a blind giveaway?
Are foreign corporations going to be allowed to bid? This administration has a distinct....dislike of foreigners....but that doesn’t seem to extend to foreign investors- as though we were a colonial property to be raped for our natural resources.
So maybe if we Oregonians decide to sell...Crater Lake to, say, Denmark, will we get half the sales price?
This national property belongs to all of us; equally. Using the prospect of half the revenues to gain Alaskan support- buying votes- again. More welfare for Alaskans, those....ruggedly independent....welfare kings.
25
I spent a few years in Northern Alaska as a young person. I loved it. The Northern Lights, the Midnight Sun, frozen sea ice, tundra berries, hot springs, the wildlife - musk ox, moose, caribou, arctic hare, the bear - were all a part of the beauty of that land.
I'm switching to geothermal energy to heat and cool my house. It's a big upfront expense so I'm taking out a loan. There are tax credits available for the next three years. I've already got solar panels for electricity. And I insulated my 1960's house too. I'm also investing in an e-bike and ditching my car.
We've all got to get off our gas and oil addiction. As the teenaged climate justice activist Greta Thunberg says, our house is on fire. Let's act like it and respond accordingly.
117
Trump is running the USA the same way as he ran his own business. The world knows it. It should not come as a surprise either, he basically told us he would do that during his campaign. Nobody, apart from the Deutsche Bank, wanted to do business with him then and nobody wants to do business with the U.S now.
68
@Truthseeker You are so right. His past betrays him to the world. If his father had not been rich he would never have survived this long. I feel so bad for all the workers he has stiffed and the cities where he has rallies and never pays, we the people are funding his campaign rallies.
7
@Truthseeker
Bankruptcies galore. Billions of losses. Lies and more lies. Cheating contractors, blaming investors for his losses. Selling phony goods and knowledge (Trump U, Trump etcs.). So true.
1
I think that it is time to explore for coal under all the private golf courses in America. If no coal is found after going down 300 feet abandon the creators and convert them into luxury underground housing for the corporate workers.
Golf course owners will be compensated by a credit on their income taxes for the next 50 years. No polar bears will be killed and if we strike coal put it where we put oil and gas, because we need to invest only in green energy.
47
“It is hard to view these Congressional Budget Office estimates as based on reality..."
Tell me about it. Most days I wake up expecting the sun to rise in the west, an announcement that mining of green cheese on the moon will pay for a border wall between us and Ceti Alpha 6 and "My Little Pony" was a government plot to deny trump his divinely endorsed reelection.
20
Someone in business would not open a new area to oil and gas exploration when prices are at low values. Basically, this is just given land away forever for these companies to exploit. Thus, one must look elsewhere for the rationale... 1) to assuage his base and gain accolades, 2) roll back environmental protections to gain accolades from his base which apparenlty believe in (white) MAN's dominion over the earth and 3) to roll back every thing from the prior President, who just so happend to be a man of color.
41
Alaska is on fire. Literally.
Are there any environmentally-aware candidates who would like to run for office in Alaska? The Lower 48 would like to shower you with campaign contributions.
20
@John
The one with the biggest plan, governor Jay, just quit the campaign.
It’s filled with oil and minerals. Let the games begin. If the attic melts flooding will overwhelm the planet. Coastal cities willl be fighting flooding for next 30 years.
6
@Ralph Petrillo Yes, and perhaps Mar A Lago will be under water as well. Justice!
1
@Ralph Petrillo This is a pristine natural wilderness REFUGE. It is one of the last places on this planet with this ecosystem. I t is fragile and beautiful. We need to protect it, the oil industry will be punished by massive boycotts for ruining this special place. I was there in 1984 and know!
2
Greed drives this Administration. They are guilty of self-enrichment at the expense of the environment. That and the stupidity of Trump and the silent Republicans is absolutely astounding! These people need to be removed or thrown out of office.
62
"$900 million in federal revenue" is the amount of revenue to be generated by the Feds. This could easily be generated in an instance by implementing an estate tax of 20% on estates over a billion dollars.
That would allow an amazing untouched resource to be a tourist attraction for generations to come.
69
@smithe
$900M is hardly one year's budget deficit.
What will Trump do for an encore?
@smithe
How about the animals and the ecosystem?
Just another day of corruption and lies . . . ongoing daily since January 20, 2017.
56
Underlying it all is a complete lack of integrity!!!
28
Much of the oil and gas under Alaska on land and offshore would be bound for Asia. India, China and other evermore energy hungry Asian countries could more easily source from Middle East countries extending from the west offshore Israel (mostly gas) to Iran (oil and gas), if the politics ever get settled. And of course there's Russia who continues to develop its Arctic oil and gas reserves chiefly to supply Asia via pipeline or ship.
So if you want to preserve Alaska and make prospective oil and gas reserves undeveloped, hope there's not a war in the Middle East anytime soon. Should there be one, the economics for Alaskan oil and gas gets better.
6
We already have substantial claims to resources in the Arctic Ocean (as do Russia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark). Scientific American maps these various claims and political implications in their August issue, and the article is worth reading. Either Trump was simply trying to divert attention away from his ruinous tariffs and their dire effect on world trade, or (could it be?) he actually thought he could buy Greenland. I suspect the former, but half believe the latter, suggesting that he's even less astute than I imagined (if that's possible).
The offense given to a loyal ally by his petulant cancellation of a state visit is incalculable, and perhaps somebody should remind our largely uninformed chief executive that we have important Airforce bases in Greenland already.
With everything he says and does, Donald Trump becomes more of a joke, albeit a dangerous one in exceedingly poor taste.
50
@Wiltontraveler
“Thankfully, the time where you buy and sell other countries and populations is over."
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Greenland
14
The Trump Administration is attempting to benefit from the fact that Climate Change is making the Arctic valuable economically at the same time denying there is such a thing as Climate Change. I keep wondering why 40-45% of Americans support the most dishonest and corrupt Administration in history. Perhaps the Times should start doing studies of the American electorate. They enabled Trump in 2016, and may very well do so again in 2010.
17
We need to end our addiction to oil and gas.
Ditch the car. Buy a bike, even an e-bike. Put solar panels on your home. Insulate your home. Heat and cool it with geothermal.
As Greta Thunberg says, our house is on fire. Let us respond accordingly.
21
@the quiet one
"Ditch the car. Buy a bike, even an e-bike. Put solar panels on your home. Insulate your home. Heat and cool it with geothermal."
Voluntary efforts to reduce private carbon footprints shouldn't be disparaged as mere virtue signalling, if they inspire competitive virtue in others. They won't be enough on their own, because in economic terms, anthropogenic global warming is a Tragedy of the Commons: it's a result of our freedom to socialize our climate-change costs when we pay for fossil energy and all goods and services produced with it. Capping global warming thus requires a transition to a carbon-neutral global economy. Since the 'free' market socializes every cost it can get away with, collective intervention in the energy market is needed, to internalize some fraction of the marginal climate-change costs of fossil fuels in their price. Multiple tools are available to democratic societies, and more than one will be called for if emissions are to decline to zero. Leading economists, however, recommend revenue-neutral carbon taxes (washingtonpost.com/business/2019/01/17/this-is-not-controversial-bipartisan-group-economists-calls-carbon-tax), allowing consumer thrift and the profit motive to drive the alternative-energy transition rapidly and efficiently. See citizensclimatelobby.org for more info and proposed legislation.
4
Ideology first, spin second, blame becomes the next necessary step. Who gets the blame? The Obama administration of course; reasons to be worked out later.
All the predictable result of the failure to do the homework using actual facts instead of wishful thinking.
8
$55 per acre to destroy a wilderness that can never be recreated? Really?
107
Trump keeps relying on that one government scientist whose findings always support his ideas. Let’s hear it for ROSIE SCENARIO.
19
@Richard
Trump would never value the work of a scientist, much less a scientist who happened to be a Hispanic woman, which is what that name sounds like.
Trump has failed catastrophically in so many of his real estate endeavors, always building them up as more than they are worth, why would this situation be any different?
18
The Executive Branch pushing their own favored view and suppressing any other information? Wait - are we talking about Cheney conning Bush Jr into invading Iraq? No, this is a new con job being foisted on the American people. Hope it doesn't come with as high a cost ...
14
@D
If it should actually happen and Trump rapes our Arctic Wilderness, the cost will be much higher.
Any oil company that attempts to drill there should be boycotted.
36
@Joe B.
The oil companies have been able to get this oil for years by drilling into the reserves from adjacent land parcels. There is no need to go into the reserves.
And in drilling the adjacent parcels, work only occurs in the winter when there is a large snow pack. Because only other time the disruption to the soil by footprints would last tens of years.
3
@Joe B. All oil companies need to be boycotted. Go solar. Go wind power. Go geothermal. We know the answers. We must summon the will.
17
@Joe B.
Boycotts might help if enough energy consumers participated. It would be more effective, however, to internalize the marginal climate-change cost of all fossil fuels in the price consumers pay for them, as with a revenue-neutral carbon tax. The necessary transition to a carbon-neutral economy would then proceed with alacrity, driven by consumer thrift and the profit motive. Please see citizensclimatelobby.org for more info and proposed legislation.
1
In the early years of this century, the USGS web pages dealing with oil reserves in the ANWR, the Naval Reserve areas, and offshore from them concluded that there wasn't enough oil there to make it worthwhile given the then current state of technology and the price of crude.
Shortly after Bush II took office those web pages disappeared.
Extraction technology may have improve but the prices haven't.
Of course, Alaska wants to drill -- it's a welfare state supported by oil revenues and taxes.
23
Trump's insistence on drilling in the Refuge has more to do with sticking it to environmental protections than it does to extracting oil--same with Greenland, which he sees as a treasure trove for coal.
His bizarre need to attack the Earth is as strange as his need to wipe out Obama's legacy. The man is sick as well as willfully ignorant.
117
Just more of the same intentionally corrupt mismanagement, depending upon your point of view.
Thanks to fracking up earthquakes in Oklahoma and possible contamination of ground-water all over the place we have so much crude oil now, that we are exporting to the world.
In 2017 a peer reviewed scientific journal, Nature Energy, asserted that nearly half of our U.S. oil-wells would be unprofitable without our sweet government subsides to Big Oil.
And if they find any, after compromising this last, unique virgin wilderness area, we still have to pipe it, at great cost, to an export location.
And considering the unmentionable carbon bloom that opening these valves will also produce, before they get all of that handled, we will all probably be swimming with the polar bears anyway.
12
Do the revenue estimates take into the account the carbon taxes and the revolution in people's attitudes about global warming that will prevail by 2030?
The consequences of global warming are coming faster and harder than expected. No wonder Trump with his fossil fuel industry supporters wants to rush to get as much oil out as possible, as quickly as possible. The handwriting on the wall will soon be blazing bright for everyone to see.
11
This doesn’t seem to be about the oil that’s not there as it is about power, or maybe call it dominion. Placing drilling rigs in ANWR has been a Republican fantasy for decades. ANWR, literally a wildlife refuge, is the last piece of American soil that corporations haven’t been able to despoil. That there’s likely nothing there for oil men or politicians seems to be beside the point now.
16
1.8 billion dollars over a decade? Is that before or after Alaska takes its 50 percent? Either way, that's a nano-drop in the bucket when considering the trillion-dollar deficit.
17
Why would anyone invest in this? It is unpopular, hard data is scarce, and drilling may not begin until 2030, when the whole political and geological climate may be utterly against it?
14
Someone below wonders who the FOD (Friend of Donald) put this idea of ANWR drilling in his head.
The Congress has been meaning to do this for decades - but it took this POTUS to defy conventional politics and press Alaska's case.
I worked in the oil patch over 4 decades - never in seismic nor exploration nor Alaska.
But all this speculation of whether there is or is not oil - it's just that.
I remind folks that no one believed Deepwater held the riches or for that matter shale - which is actually a rock that in the oil patch is considered so dense (lack of permeability) that is considered a natural seal.
As to whether the Majors participate - they may be Major but they are more the followers than leaders in "rank wildcat" explorations or technologies.
Both Deepwater and shale revolution - not one Major commenced it.
Rest assured, when a non Major makes a discovery in ANWR - Majors will form a beeline.
And then, the real serious bidding will start - far outstripping gains to currently projected gains to Federal Treasury.
2
Why would America want to own it? We can't afford to take care of our current island possessions like Puerto Rico. If Greenland is to be bought, why not let some private entity bid on it. Mr. Trump just wanted a larger island than Mr. Epstein; the greatest island on earth.
Someone below wonders who the FOD (Friend of Donald) put this idea of ANWR drilling in his head.
The Congress has been meaning to do this for decades - but it took this POTUS to defy conventional politics and press Alaska's case.
I worked in the oil patch over 4 decades - never in seismic nor exploration nor Alaska.
But all this speculation of whether there is or is not oil - it's just that.
I remind folks that no one believed Deepwater held the riches or for that matter shale - which is actually a rock that in the oil patch is considered so dense (lack of permeability) that is considered a natural seal.
As to whether the Majors participate - they may be Major but they are more the followers than leaders in "rank wildcat" explorations or technologies.
Both Deepwater and shale revolution - not one Major commenced it.
Rest assured, when a non Major makes a discovery in ANWR - Majors will form a beeline.
And then, the real serious bidding will start - far outstripping gains to currently projected gains to Federal Treasury.
Trump is doing everything he can to boost the mining industries. This is an old 19th century ideal where tremendous wealth was created for a very few through the extraction of natural resources. It is the wholesale consumption and ruination of the land for profits. People that do this often believe that the world was created for us to use. It's all here to be exploited by humanity. They care nothing of the effects of that exploitation, only the immediate profits.
As far as oil in concerned, the world is awash in oil. Due to fracking, the US is now the world's largest producer of oil. We are also in the beginnings of a transition to electric transportation and renewable energy. The demand for oil will be falling in the coming years as this change takes hold.
Because of these changes, there is no reason or need to upset such a delicate and pristine area. Leave it in the ground. American greatness and prosperity cannot and should not be measured by the amount of natural resources we consume. It should be measured instead by their reduction instead. That is, if we want to have a planet to live on.
15
This seems easy enough to rectify, whoever bids to destroy the Arctic Refuge gets destroyed at the pump. I don't expect oil companies to take into consideration environmental impacts when making business decisions but financial impacts can come way before the first oil is extracted by 2030. Exxon learned that lesson with the Valdez crash and this would be worse because the pain would be self inflicted and the gains would be as ephemeral as the spin.
1
@Rick Gage
Exxon's stock price didn't fall with the Valdez oil spill
1
The price of oil is to low and with fracking doing well there is no reason for oil companies to enter such a hostile environment. If in the future the circumstances change then the push will be greater.
The exploitation of natural resources in the Arctic region is also the reason President Trump wants to purchase Greenland. He certainly doesn't want to build a golf resort there.
Unfortunately, no amount of rosy energy profit projections will protect the world from the 25 FEET of global sea level rise should Greenland's glaciers all melt, as is predicted to eventually happen if climate change isn't addressed. We are living in a time of madness.
7
If we use trumped up logic, drilling for oil, mining, and logging on every single acre in the country will not only make us all (corporations and the already wealthy) extremely, vulgarly, rich, but it would also wipe out all wildlife, decimate all natural habitats, giving us the freedom to pollute all we want. We can then make more gas guzzling cars, more coal fuelled power plants, and more petrol chemical plants. That’s a win win situation for the trump administration.
1
Damaging America is trump’s favor pastime. Like the little rich kid who breaks all his toys so mommy can buy him all new. But this toy, America has no replacement. Neither does the planet.
296
@DavidJ Thank you.
Putting the plain truth in a minimum of short direct words, well done!
4
@DavidJ - The fossil fuel extractors are playing a game; a game of getting as much in assets (and land and drilling rights) as possible, for the day that they can claim they have been injured by U.S. public policy, and have 'stranded assets' for which they need reimbursement - either from taxpayers or ratepayers.
Evidence of the above is located in the notorious provisions of the rejected TPP 'treaty' requiring compensation be paid to corporations if their assets were devalued due to a public policy of a country - for instance, if tobacco companies saw their stock price decline due to a new government policy/regulation.
Further confirmation is in the millions upon millions of public onshore and offshore acres already bought up by fossil fuel companies - which they have not yet even explored/drilled; the whole scenario is just a huge land grab scam.
7
$ 1.8 Trillion, not Billion, one hopes.
Another day, another GOP-Trumpian obscene 'public' policy.
Rape Mother Earth for a few extra nickels; let someone else clean up the trail of profit and environmental destruction.
The Congressional Budget Office projected $1.1 billion in increased federal revenue over a decade ?!
The Republican Party and Trump just handed out $1 to $2 TRILLION to the 0.1% and rich corporations over a decade !
$1.1 billion is pennies.
It takes a special kind of disregard for nature, math, economics, animals, humanity and conscience to consider the Republican Party as a part of civilization.
No one does moral, intellectual and economic bankruptcy better than the Grand Old Phonies.
46
While I guess it can't be the focus of everything, climate change should not be ignored when it is so directly relevant. The Times' coverage of climate change has improved so much. But it needn't be the elephant in the living room on issues like this. For instance, you could have mentioned the prior reduction in the value given to the social cost of carbon by this Administration, which is compatible with the "This is what I want to do; now give me the numbers to prove it" mindset.
As there's increasing realization we're going to have to bite the bullet and leave known fossil fuel reserves in the ground--because the Earth is telling us in so many ways it can't take it anymore--why are we contemplating going after new supplies?
While Trump may never be able to see this, we need even "good guy," Paris Treaty-supporting politicians to accelerate the transition away from the old way of doing things. It will be hard at times, no doubt, but we need to get on with figuring how to do this, including easing the pain of those invested, employed in, or dependent on these sectors. But continuing the denial only gets us further behind in meeting our obligations to our children and the species with whom we share the planet.
11
@Matt Polsky
Thanks for making the connection with climate change. You're right that if greenhouse warming is to be capped short of global catastrophe, the remaining fossil carbon reserves have to be left in the ground. WRT to opening the Arctic refuge to oil extraction, I was struck by this sentence from the article:
"But few people expect drilling, if it occurs, to begin before 2030."
The biggest obstacle to development of alternative energy production and use, is that the climate-change cost of fossil fuels is socialized out of their market price: that is, we don't pay for it 'at the pump'. Internalizing a large enough fraction of the marginal social cost, as with a carbon tax, would harness consumer thrift and the profit motive to build out the carbon-neutral US and global economies rapidly and efficiently.
If in 2030 it's still profitable to invest in new oil production, OTOH, we can expect global temperatures to rise substantially higher in the following decades. That's the elephant in the room.
1
I am SO TIRED of government by fraudulent misrepresentation.
20
Trump lies. We all know that. The question to ask is 'what's in it for him?'
18
@Henry
He just wants to ruin America.
3
How is $1.8 billion even considered a windfall when it's projected that the government would be running a $1 trillion deficit a year for the next 10 years with the last tax cuts and now Trump is talking about more tax cuts.
Oil companies may benefit somewhat from the new drilling leases, but we won't and the loss of this pristine region is incalculable. November 2020 cannot come fast enough.
124
You know things are getting desperate in Washington DC when the Trump Administration needs to lie to itself to prove a fallacy! That's Trump, living the lie, believing the lie, preaching the lie.
79
@Bayshore Progressive When the government, Trump, believes that $1.8B is a windfall and attempts to sell that paltry sum as a great win, that is desperation.
5
The US Department of Energy estimates that the earth has a 50 year supply of oil left in the ground and the vast majority of it is in places already drilled. The 11 billion BBLs thought to be in the North Slope pales in comparison to the 1.687 billion BBLs that DoE estimates are left. Clearly, the time is ripe for moving away from dependence on petroleum as an energy source regardless of your thinking about climate change. Drilling on the North Slope is a diversion from the huge effort of (and investment in) converting the global economy to renewables. This effort is only about preserving the Oil Industry’s big investment in its infrastructure. But all the investment in the world won’t put another drop of oil into earth’s crust.
34
It doesn’t matter. When we purchase Greenland from those stubborn and pesky Danes, a bounty of natural resources shall be ours for the taking.
39
@Henry And if the Danes are unwilling, which they are, will Commander Bone Spurs invade Greenland, just as he did at the Battle Of Dulles International Airport to drive those pesky Brits out, and seize the island?
5
Glad I got to see Alaska before it gets totally destroyed, but the clouds are on the horizon. The federal park employees are not allowed to mention the GW words (global warming) so they just say how large areas are melting. We needed air conditioning in the northernmost ski lodge in the America’s. Salmon runs are down, causing Iditarod competitors to put down dogs due to lack of food.
37
@John So John I hope this post is satirical. The salmon die off was contained to one species.
2
The destruction of salmon runs is global, irreversible, and will several other species with it (Southern Resident Orca as one example).
3
I wonder what FOD (Friend of Donald) seeded this idea into Trump’s head. I sure this made sense to Trump since I think he looks as everything as a business transaction (his marriages included). So everything is up for sale. It astonishes me that his supporters don’t understand that attaining the office of President was done entirely to milk the system for him and his friends which include his financiers (he core belief is one hand washes the other). I just hope he doesn’t bankrupt the US like he did his companies.
97
@Mark...It's astonishing to me that he still has supporters. After all his failed policies and divisive twittering...what is there to support. Could a Trump supporter please explain ?? I don't see any MAGA ??
9
@Dave
He still has supporters due to several reasons. One that sticks out in my mind is the decrease in an educated population over several generations. Education derived from well read parents as well as legitimate institutions.
Does we have the proper tools to reverse decades of ignorance?
3
@Ray....Of 4 Trump supporters that I know...3 have college degrees and 1 Woman with 2 degrees and 1 man who had no college changed their postions and no longer support Trump. I'm sure William Barr and Kelly Ann Conway have degrees so.. I hear what you are saying but...I don't know...I think it just depends on one's gullibility ! The PT Barnum Theory in Action !! Too many Americans from all walks of life are just easily deluded and respond well to the Propaganda spewed from Trump the GOP,Barr, and Fox. Unfortunately in the case of the 2016 Elections..due to the Russia and Wiki Leaks interference and the help of the Electoral College...the Majority of Americans are now at the mercy of the minority !! Hopefully that will change in 2020.
Trump, with an administration orchestrated propaganda campaign, "pumped up the estimates" to conform to his internal perception: 'It's cold, it's vast, there's snow.it's the Arctic. It's like Putin's Siberia. There's a stupendous oil there, and Obama stopped us from getting it."
When the numbers finally don't add up: "The Russian got it first, deep drilling from Siberia. We lost, thanks to Hlllary and Obama."
18
They are destroying the last great wilderness on the planet. These people have no morality. Life for them is one big resource extraction. We're so doomed...
201
Doomed, and deservedly so, though it pains me to say it.
Between drilling in ANWR, ruining Bristol Bay to dig an open pit mine and rolling back the Endangered Species Act, Alaska's wilderness in particular sure has been under a barrage of irrational Republican assaults in the past few weeks. Sickening.
17
The process of exploring for natural resources in remote, ecologically fragile areas, ALWAYS poses risks of both immediate and long-term harm to natural systems in the region in question. This is a fact - no well-informed scientist can honestly state otherwise. To think that there are a great many people who are quite prepared to risk harming some of the most pristine wilderness areas remaining on our already over-exploited planet, in search of poorly substantiated reserves of low-margin resources which would be incredibly expensive to develop if they are in fact present...well, this is a sad commentary on our species as a whole, and our present "civilization" in particular.
225
@Joseph Ross Mayhew agreed. And we are nowhere near "civilized". I don't even know what that word means anymore.
12
I remember years ago that there was a protest about a Shell exploration ship going to the arctic to see what they could find. People hung from a bridge to prevent it from leaving a harbor.
In was in 2015, under Obama (!!!) to drill two exploratory wells: Activists hang from bridge in Portland to block Shell's Arctic vessel.
Turned out that while there was oil, it would have to be something like $120 a barrel to be economical. With the rise in fracking, it didn't seem like that would happen for a long time, if ever.
Now why do I remember that, but no one in the Trump administration seemed to factor it in?
118
I think I remember this. A huge huge machine. But it got stuck or had other serious technical problems.
3
Sounds like the Iraq war.
69
@robert conger
Are you referring to the pre-invasion rhetoric?
1