Judge blocks Trump administration move to undo Obama ban on Arctic oil leasing

A judge has ruled in favor of environmental groups in their effort to block the Trump administration’s push to re-open large portions of Arctic waters to oil drilling.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason, in an opinion released late Friday, said President Donald Trump exceeded his authority by issuing an executive order in 2017 that reopened large parts of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas to offshore oil leasing. Former President Barack Obama had protected those areas from development in his second term.

The decision once again puts the vast majority of the Arctic Ocean and parts of the Atlantic off-limits to oil development. The Interior Department had been moving forward with an effort to hold oil lease sales in the Arctic Ocean as soon as this year.

The Trump administration can appeal the decision.

The lawsuit hinged on a single line in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which governs offshore leasing: “The President of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf.”

Read more: https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/03/29/judge-blocks-trump-administration-move-to-undo-obama-ban-on-arctic-oil-leasing/