American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017 - 126
the Atlantic basin, President Obama
benched the United States, dismissing his
own advisers, who have argued that energy
development, particularly in the Arctic, is
imperative to our national security."
The American Petroleum Institute also
trumpeted national security in a statement
from Upstream Director Erik Milito.
"Blocking offshore exploration weakens
our national security, destroys goodpaying jobs, and could make energy less
affordable for consumers," Milito says.
Karen Harbert, president and chief
executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce's Institute for 21st Century
Energy, says the withdrawals "place extreme fringe interests over America's best
interest."
And Consumer Energy Alliance President David Holt declares, "As anti-energy
activists cheer the announcement as an
early Christmas present, it is a far different
story for millions of Americans across the
country, especially those on fixed incomes,
who are struggling to make ends meet,
depend on affordable and reliable energy
to meet daily needs, and are unable to pay
for increased electricity or fuel costs."
The entire Alaska congressional delegation issued a statement condemning the
Arctic withdrawals, pointing out that "while
President Obama's withdrawal is indefinite,
Canada will review the status of its Arctic
waters every five years. With Russian development already under way, it may be
just a few short years before our nation is
bracketed by activity on both sides and
importing the oil resulting from it."
Senator Dan Sullivan, R-Ak., calls the
withdrawal "one final Christmas gift to
coastal environmental elites," and says,
"Presiding over a lost decade of economic
growth for America, Obama's legacy will
not be one of transparency and inclusion
of affected stakeholders, but one of executive overreach at the command of extreme special interests."
Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Ak., states,
"President Obama once again has treated
the Arctic like a snow globe, ignoring
the desires of the people who live, work,
and raise families there. I cannot wait to
work with the next administration to reverse this decision."
Legal Underpinnings
Industry associations echoed the call
for the next Congress and/or Presidentelect Trump to rescind President Obama's
orders.
To withdraw the areas from future
leasing, President Obama invoked section
12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf
Lands Act, which empowers the chief
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126 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
executive to "from time to time, withdraw
from disposition any of the unleased
lands of the OCS."
An article in the Washington Post observes, "Presidents have modified decisions
from predecessors to indefinitely withdraw
areas from drilling, but have never rescinded them altogether."
That article points to "a legal opinion
from the U.S. attorney general in 1938
(that) similar designations under a different
law 'do not imply a power to undo.'"
Christopher Guith, senior vice president
for policy at the Chamber of Commerce's
Institute for 21st Century Energy, scoffs
at that reasoning. Although he acknowledges the OCSLA doesn't state specifically
that a president can rescind a previous
president's withdrawal, neither does it
say he can't, Guith points out. "More
importantly, it has happened once already.
So there is precedence and there is legal
construction," he adds.
Guith explains that the only time
section 12(a) has been invoked was by
President George H.W. Bush, who withdrew waters off the West Coast, North
Atlantic and South Florida for a decade.
President Bill Clinton subsequently extended that withdrawal, which President
George W. Bush later rescinded with a
simple presidential memorandum.
Furthermore, Guith observes, the word,
"permanent," is nowhere to be found in
the OCSLA. That is by design, he insists,
because Congress' intent in passing the
law was for DOI to periodically review
the nation's offshore resources, the state
of technology, and energy demand. "This
needs to be a very dynamic process," he
states. "Permanency would be anathema
to the purpose of the law."
Guith contends White House lawyers
are very aware of that. He suggests that
is why President Obama used the word
"indefinite" rather than "permanent" in
his memoranda. "That is a pretty major
distinction," he says. "That in and of
itself should tell you that the environmentalists' rhetoric is not based in law."
NOIA's Randall reiterates that a permanent withdrawal "is clearly inconsistent
with the OCSLA's steadfast declaration
that 'the OCS is a vital national resource
reserve held by the federal government for
the public, which should be made available
for expeditious and orderly development."
And API's Milito notes that a permanent
and unilateral withdrawal "conflicts directly
with the special role that OCSLA gives
governors in OCS leasing decisions."
Further, Alaska's congressional delegation points out in a letter written to
President Obama on the eve of the Bering
Sea withdrawal that such action would
violate promises made to the state by the
American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017
Contents
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017 - Contents
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