Oil and gas lease public comment period extension sought
A group of lawmakers recently urged the Department of Interior (DOI) to extend the public comment period regarding potential oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Sens. Tom Carper, (D-DE), Tom Udall (D-NM), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Michael F. Bennet (D-CO) and Ed Markey (D-MA) forwarded correspondence last week to DOI Acting Secretary David Bernhardt regarding public input on the Environmental Impact Statement draft.
The legislators said they seek to lengthen the amount of time provided for the review process to allow for meaningful public engagement and input on the decision. The lawmakers maintain that the Trump Administration’s decision to rush through the environmental review process to begin exploration did not adequately consider the impacts drilling would have on the Refuge.
“The Department of the Interior should extend the comment period due to the extreme sensitivity of the resources affected by leasing, the great complexity of the analysis, the overlapping public comment periods for other actions taking place in the Refuge and the continued government shutdown,” the senators wrote.
They are requesting that the DOI lengthens the public comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from 45 to 120 days.
“The Refuge is one of the last truly wild places on Earth. Much of its wildlife is as sensitive and imperiled as it is iconic,” the senators wrote. “Disturbing the Refuge poses an existential threat to traditional Gwich’in culture and raises human rights concerns. With all this in mind, Congress ensured our fundamental environmental laws remained in place to protect the Coastal Plain and preserve the existing protective statutory purposes of the Refuge.”
