from masterresource
By Robert Bradley Jr. — August 20, 2024
“It’s time for DOI and BLM to prove their worth, whether they are truly working for the public good or simply pandering to the Lower-48 radical environmental elite… trying to shut down the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS)… [and] Alaska. (- U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, below)
Termite wishes. This term coined by Ayn Rand for the enemies of modern life and human progress applies to many of today's energy issues. One of the most recent examples is the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which since 1977 has been transporting crude oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez (800 miles) and then to market by tanker. Today, TAPS produces an average of about 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day, accounting for 3.5% of U.S. production.
Close petition
In June, these environmental groups filed a legal petition with the U.S. Department of the Interior calling for the phase-out and decommissioning of TAPS: Center for Biological Diversity; Pacific Environment; Sovereign Inuit Committed to a Vibrant Arctic; Alaska Community Toxic Action ; Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition; and Public Employee Environmental Responsibility (see also here).
“[TAPS] As climate change inflicts increasing damage on aging pipeline infrastructure and the entire Arctic ecosystem, it is nearing the end of its useful life,” the six petitioners said, noting that “the United States must quickly transition away from fossil fuel-based energy.
Bureau of Land Management (Department of the Interior) grants pipeline right-of-way for 30 years, with 10 more years left, petitioners seek
A managed phase-out of pipelines should also begin immediately, with an updated demolition, demolition and restoration (DR&R) plan drafted. Avoiding the worst harms of climate change requires immediate action to halt any new fossil fuel development and begin a rapid transition to more sustainable energy sources, especially in the Arctic. We simply cannot afford to operate TAPS for another ten years without a comprehensive analysis of the ongoing harmful effects of TAPS and the need to implement fundamental changes to phase out reductions.
This would be a “take” and demonstrate the need to privatize Alaska's public realm to avoid political issues and depoliticize energy policy in the Arctic. In effect, such privatization would generate revenue to pay down federal debt in a time of fiscal austerity.
Biden vs Alaska
Washington, D.C., is further undermining Alaska’s oil industry. The Biden-Harris administration is trying to shut down oil and gas development in more of Alaska's North Slope. The state of Alaska and local governments within the state are suing Biden-Harris over this.
The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management released a final environmental impact report recommending the revocation of a 2021 public lands order that would take away 28 million acres in the state. Alaska U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan said in a press release: “Retaining PLO in Alaska is effectively a land withdrawal that limits public access, multiple uses, and the Certain selected lands were transferred to Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans “through this operation,” Murkowski added.
The Biden administration refuses to release a single PLO acre of land anywhere in our state, instead keeping all of it under restrictions, squandering the opportunity to do the right thing for Alaska. This is effectively a new form of administrative land withdrawal, although most of the PLO in Alaska has served its purpose and is no longer needed. This would be unacceptable in any other state, but once again this administration is treating Alaska differently than the lower 48 states, and far worse.
Sullivan noted that the Biden administration “has issued more than 64 executive orders and actions directly targeting Alaska… hurting our jobs and our economy, and also hurting our Alaska Native communities, who will not have access to gravel resources to build on.” Infrastructure in local villages.
TAPS was part of this federal attack. Dan Sullivan recently wrote this letter to Interior Secretary Debra Haaland and Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning. His inquiries and requests foreshadowed our efforts to eradicate termites working 4,300 miles away.
I am writing this letter to express my serious concerns about the Bureau of Land Management's decision to abandon its commitment to the State of Alaska to revoke Public Lands Order (PLO) 5150. , far-left environmental groups are trying to shut down the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), raising questions about possible collusion between the Biden administration and lower-level radical environmentalists in the lower 48 states who want to shut down Alaska.
Revoking PLO 5150 would enable the transfer of lands under TAPS to the State of Alaska. As detailed in a July 8, 2024, letter from the Alaska Congressional Delegation to the Director of the Alaska Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the BLM recommended partial or full revocation of many PLOs, including PLO 5150…but in no way Oddly, the BLM also failed to issue an EA for PLO 5150 when it released the final SEIS for the Central Yukon RMP, despite BLM's commitment to the Alaska DNR to do so.
During a recent Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, you offered a series of excuses to explain your failure, claiming that BLM's “plate was full” and that your decision to abandon the PLO 5150 EA process was “collectively about workload.” decision” the department. “Such statements are completely and blatantly insulting. In fact, Alaskans' voices are once again being ignored by your administration. This became abundantly clear during your recent visit to Alaska, when you neglected to meet with state and tribal leaders.” request, but continues to meet with representatives of organizations seeking to eliminate resource production in Alaska.
As expected, and as you know, a coalition of far-left environmental groups, possibly in coordination with your team at BLM, is demanding the following actions from DOI and BLM on June 12, 2024:
- Immediately initiate scoping of the TAPS supplemental environmental review;
- Complete the SEIS for TAPS that includes “meaningful” alternatives and mitigation measures; and,
- Draft a plan to remove and remove TAPS and restore the right-of-way.
Their request is a major undertaking because in 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) concluded that it took agencies an average of 4.5 years to complete environmental impact reports, while environmental assessments took a much shorter time.
Now is the time for DOI and BLM to prove their worth, whether they are truly working for the public good or simply pandering to the Lower-48's radical environmental elite. DOI must respond to petitions “within a reasonable time…[and] Continue to complete matters submitted to it. Therefore, if DOI and BLM choose to move forward with the environmentalists' petition, it would confirm my suspicion that DOI and BLM's plates are not actually “full” and that leadership decisions regarding “department workload” are intended to meet For their far left allies, considering TAP's SEIS will take longer than PLO 5150's EA.
With this in mind, I am requesting that the BLM provide the following records to my office by September 13, 2024:
- Communications with third parties: Records reflecting all communications (including emails and email attachments, text messages, Teams chats, iMessage or any other messaging app messages, phone call logs, calendar entries, meeting agendas, minutes or memos, faxes or any other physical or electronic record reflecting communications “exchanged by an official of the United States Department of the Interior with any non-U.S. federal government employee,” including those records that have been deleted or drafted but are recoverable: i) Public Lands Order 5150; (ii) Cross Alaska Pipeline; (iii) Central Yukon Resource Management Plan. Please search from January 1, 2021 to the search date.
- Decision Document: A record reflecting all communications (including emails and email attachments, text messages, Teams chats, iMessage or any other messaging app messages, phone call logs, calendar entries, meeting agendas, minutes or memos, faxes or any other Physical or electronic records reflecting communications between officials or employees of the Federal Government (either between or within any department or agency), including communications in deleted or draft form but recoverable, that relate to, reflect, relate to, or include:
A. Any determination, discussion, or identification of deficiencies in the Draft Central Alaska Yukon Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement issued by the Bureau of Land Management on December 11, 2020, including the determination, discussion, or identification of: Alternatives Due to the defects of E, it is recommended to cancel PLO 5150;
B. Reasons for any decision, discussion, or determination to recommend the retention of PLO 5150 in Central Yukon
“Alaska Proposed Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement,” released by the Bureau of Land Management on April 19, 2024; and
C. Any decision, discussion, or rationale for a petition submitted to Secretary Haaland by the Center for Biological Diversity, Pacific Environmental Center, Sovereign Inupiat Protecting the Arctic, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, and Fairbanks Climate Action The Alliance for Environmental Responsibility and public employees requested on June 12, 2024, “a supplemental environmental impact statement and demolition, demolition and restoration plan for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.” … - Personal emails and text messages: Personal emails and text messages sent between January 20, 2021 and the date of the search from the following list of employees:
A. All communications, including any attachments, sent to or from any non-governmental email address or phone number established, controlled, or used by any of our employees.
B. All records referring to or relating to any non-governmental email address or phone number established, controlled, or used by any of our employees below.
C. All communications, including any attachments, sent or received in connection with government business transactions using any non-government email account or non-government communications device established, controlled, or used by… - Calendar: All calendars or calendar entries for the following individuals, including any calendars maintained on behalf of those individuals (e.g., by an administrative assistant) from January 20, 2021 to the date of retrieval:…
I requested that the calendar be created in a format that includes all invitees, any notes, and all accessories. Please don't limit your search to Outlook calendars. Please provide any response documentation in paper or electronic form, available on a government-issued or personal device, that is used to track or coordinate an individual's time allocated to agency business.
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