GOP resist Obama's artificial scarcity policy on Alaska oil

Fuel Fix:

Republicans on Monday vowed to fightthe Obama administration’s decision to block drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other coming actions expected to limit oil development in parts of Alaska and the waters surrounding it.

“This is a frontal attack on the state of Alaska,” said Republican Lisa Murkowski, the state’s senior senator. “We will not stand it, we will not tolerate it, and we will do everything we can to push back against an administration that has taken a look at Alaska and decided it is a nice little snow globe.”

“They know the fight is on, and we are not backing down.”

At issue is the administration’s decision to treat more than 12 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness — giving it the highest level of public lands protection under federal law — and to ask Congress to codify the move. Even if Congress doesn’t comply, the Interior Department’s conservation plan is set to dictate decisions about how the refuge is used for 15 years.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management also is poised to unveil a draft plan for selling offshore oil and gas leases from 2017 to 2022, which is widely expected to rule out auctions of drilling rights in the Pacific Ocean, as well as parts of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of Alaska.

The draft, which could be released as soon as Tuesday, is likely to preserve possible sales of leases in mid- and south Atlantic waters and pave the way for auctions of Gulf of Mexico acreage.

Finally, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management is slated to soon declare its requirements for ConocoPhillips to drill up to 33 wells into federal lands at its Greater Mooses Tooth site in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, with some possible stipulations costing tens of millions of dollars.

Republicans from Alaska blasted the moves at a news conference Monday: Murkowski called them a “triple whammy” and Rep. Don Young said the administration had gone “completely wacko.” They hinted at coming budgetary, legislative and legal attacks on the ANWR conservation plan.
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Obama is playing to the anti energy left and at same time demonstration why he deserves no credit for the falling oil prices or the jobs created by energy development.  It also looks like he is trying to prop up OPEC and keep the US in a position where it will have to continue to import oil.  This is not a god issue for Democrats and gives the GOP another opportunity to show the anti jobs agenda of the anti energy left.