Judge scraps Trump order for Arctic and Atlantic oil leasing

A federal judge in Alaska has overturned President Trump’s attempt to open vast areas of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans to oil and gas leasing.

The decision issued on the 4^th April by US District Court Judge Sharon Gleason leaves intact President Barack Obama’s policies putting the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea, part of the Arctic’s Beaufort Sea and a large swath of Atlantic Ocean off the US East Coast off-limits to oil leasing.

President Trump’s attempt to undo Mr Obama’s protections was ‘unlawful’ and a violation of the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Judge Gleason ruled.

Presidents have the power under that law to withdraw areas from the national oil and gas leasing programme, as Mr Obama did, but only Congress has the power to add areas to the leasing programme, she said.

Source: Energy-pedia