Oil Drilling In the Arctic

Today, the Trump administration finalized its plan to open up part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas development, a move that overturns six decades of protections for the largest remaining stretch of wilderness in the United States.  The decision sets the stage for what is expected to be a fierce legal battle over the fate of the refuge’s vast, remote coastal plain, which is believed to sit atop billions of barrels of oil but is also home to polar bears and migrating herds of caribou.

You don't need to be worried about this.  Any oil production within the refuge would be at least a decade in the future and would require more permits, although companies that bought leases could  theoretically begin the process of exploring for oil and gas sooner.

But the price of oil and gas is down, and companies aren't exactly looking for excuses to increase their overhead costs.   They are more likely to spend money looking for ways to increase production and yield from fields currently being exploited and where infrastructure for development and transportation is already in place.

But what they are looking for is the opportunity to purchase new drilling leases and claim new fields. Why?  Because it's a tax shelter - not only is the money spent on buying leases tax deductible, but the value of the land leases is based not on the price they pay but on potential yield from the tracts.  Buy a lease for $1M, and then claim a deduction for $20M based on profits that could potentially be made off the land.   Also, report to the stockholders that you just purchased $20M worth of potential new leases, and your stock price goes up, enriching your CEO and the stockholders,  

Buying new leases is highly lucrative; developing new leases is not.

It's all just Trump's latest tactic for distracting us and diverting attention away from the atrocious job he's done on managing the coronavirus pandemic and the economy.  He's hoping this gets environmentalists all worked up so he can further divide us by calling them "treehuggers" or whatever, and falsely claim they're more interested in polar bears and caribou than American jobs. He can get his base worked up chanting "Drill, baby, drill" and have his opposition fighting over something that's not going to happen anyway.  Meanwhile, no one's talking about the 170,000 Americans dead from covid-19 and his billionaire handles realize more profit from tax relief and stock-price increases - it's a win/win strategy on his part.

No, oil and gas production should not occur in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  It's not needed to meet energy demands, it would accelerate climate change, lead to more rapid extinction of species like the polar bear, and spoil one of our largest and last true wilderness areas.  But long before the first oil rig would be installed, after all permits have been obtained and litigation settled (but profits by the oil companies already realized), the Trump administration will have long been out of office and subsequent administrations will have effective and efficient measures in place to ensure that drilling never occurs.

Don;t fall for the distraction. Vote the bastards out of office due to their corruption, their incompetence, and their authoritarianism, and don't take your eye off the ball in pointless, Palin-era arguments about Arctic drilling.