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President releases Arctic strategy plan Obama administration sets objectives in support of US security, environmental protection, international cooperation in the Arctic Alan Bailey Petroleum News
The Obama administration has published a plan for implementing the National Strategy for the Arctic Region that the president issued in May. While that earlier strategy document set out some broad guiding principles and priorities for federal government actions in the Arctic, the implementation plan puts some flesh on those strategic intents by setting specific targets for federal government agencies.
The president’s plan was published on Jan. 30, simultaneously with a State of Alaska Arctic policy draft report — the state’s report was described in the Feb. 9 issue of Petroleum News.
The national plan is organized under the headings of three “lines of effort” derived from the national strategy: advancing U.S. security interests; pursuing responsible Arctic stewardship through environmental protection and integrated management; and strengthening international cooperation.
Energy policy National energy policy for the Arctic, with a general objective of supporting future U.S. energy security, comes within the more general remit of advancing U.S. security interests. And the energy implementation plan contains both renewable and non-renewable energy components.
On the renewable energy side of the policy, the implementation plan directs the U.S. Department of Energy to meet with federal stakeholders and the State of Alaska to start the development of a 10-year plan for renewable energy development. The department needs to encourage the development of renewable energy sources with the greatest possibility of success, such as wind, wave and solar energy, the implementation plan says.
The implementation plan also sets out a series of other renewable energy goals.
Oil and gas In terms of non-renewable energy sources such as oil and gas, the plan requires the Department of the Interior to take the lead in ensuring safe and responsible exploration, onshore and offshore. Required steps include conducting, by the end of 2016, an evaluation of oil and gas potential to enable a regionally tailored approach to future offshore leasing. Within the same timeframe the plan also requires an assessment of the future capability of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline to handle additional oil resources.
The plan requires new assessments of ocean-bottom environments in deep water in the Arctic.
And there needs to be the continued development of technology for responding to oil spills, together with the evaluation and promotion of technology for the prevention of spills during drilling operations, the plan says.
Other security initiatives The plan for bolstering U.S. security also requires the Department of Transportation to head efforts to prioritize the development of new Arctic infrastructure, to support increased vessel traffic in the Arctic offshore and to improve Arctic marine safety. The department must develop recommendations for public-private partnerships for infrastructure development, the implementation plan also says.
The Department of Transportation must continue with upgrades to the aeronautical infrastructure, while the Department of Commerce is tasked with prioritizing investments in Arctic telecommunications capacity and capabilities. The U.S. will collaborate with the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum of the eight Arctic nations, to evaluate the feasibility of an Arctic-wide telecommunications network, the implementation plan says.
Offshore awareness The U.S. Coast Guard is tasked with taking a lead in working with entities operating in the Arctic to improve awareness of what is happening offshore. The agency will partner with academia and industry to evaluate the use of unmanned aircraft for collecting offshore information. The Coast Guard will also progress a number of initiatives relating to improved communications associated with shipping activities, including the Arctic use of an international long-range vessel tracking system and an enhanced automatic vessel identification system. And the Coast Guard will seek to improve Arctic situational awareness through a broadly accessible information system, using standardized information and data formats, the implementation plan says.
The Coast Guard will also seek ways to use satellites to improve communications and observe what is happening in the Arctic.
The Department of Homeland Security is to play a lead role in ensuring that the United States maintains an appropriate icebreaking and ice-strengthened ship capability by developing long-term plans for sustaining that capability.
The U.S. government will promote the freedom of the seas under international law through activities such as Arctic maritime exercises; promoting the global mobility of vessels and aircraft throughout the Arctic region; and making objection to what it sees as unlawful restrictions on the use of the Arctic seas and airspace.
Arctic stewardship Under the general heading of pursuing responsible Arctic stewardship, the plan requires the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to take a lead role in conserving Arctic ecosystems through activities such as baseline environmental monitoring and the monitoring of Arctic change. The agency is to develop and maintain a program for monitoring ecosystem data. And the identification of environmentally sensitive Arctic areas will inform Arctic planning efforts, including the planning of leasing in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas and the preparation of federal and state plans for responding to oil spills, the implementation plan says.
Agencies will include risk assessments in National Environmental Policy Act reviews, to better balance competing interests and account for rapid environmental change, the implementation plan says.
And federal agencies will take a series of steps to improve the prevention and response to spills of hazardous materials. Those steps include the completion of an oil dispersant authorization plan, the completion of an Arctic spill response assessment and the conducting of a worst case discharge response deployment exercise.
Integrated management The Department of the Interior and other agencies will use a science-based protocol called Integrated Arctic Management, or IAM, to ensure sustainable economies in the Arctic, long-lasting ecosystems and the preservation of the cultural activities of people who depend on the Arctic environment, the implementation plan says.
Various agencies will be tasked with progressing a number of initiatives aimed at an improved understanding of the Arctic natural environment and improved modeling of how that environment may change in the future. These initiatives include improved sea-ice forecasting; integrated ecosystem research; the monitoring and analysis of the dynamics of glaciers; the investigation of Arctic wild-land fires; improved observation and modeling of Arctic atmospheric processes; support for a circumpolar Arctic observing system; and the integration of models used to project environmental change in the Arctic.
Efforts to support Arctic communities will include the sharing of scientific information; coordinating efforts to foster the persistence of Native language and culture; and forecasting climate and food security scenarios. The Department of Health and Human Services will lead an effort to better understand and support improved health and survival rates for Arctic indigenous peoples.
Several federal agencies will collaborate on the improved mapping and charting of U.S. Arctic waters.
International cooperation As part of a general effort to strengthen international cooperation in the Arctic, the U.S. Coast Guard will lead an endeavor to promote international agreements for oil pollution preparedness, prevention and response, including coordination with Russia under an existing joint contingency plan and the implementation of a joint contingency plan with Canada. The U.S. will continue to participate in the Arctic Council oil pollution prevention task force and will participate in international training and other exercises.
Other international initiatives will include helping to implement an Arctic search and rescue agreement; negotiating an international agreement on rules for commercial fishing in Arctic high-seas areas; supporting international efforts aimed at reducing environmental contamination from transportation activities; developing a plan for managing the threat of invasive species associated with international transportation; and promoting international Arctic research.
Arctic Council The Department of State will lead in the development of a robust agenda for the U.S chairmanship of the Arctic Council, in recognition of the U.S. taking over that chairmanship in 2015. The implementation plan also sets an objective of working with the Arctic Council members to assess the impact of black carbon pollution in the Arctic and to reduce this form of pollution.
The implementation plan also sets a target of seeking U.S. Senate support for U.S. accession to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, while the United States also continues its efforts to delineate the borders of the U.S. extended continental shelf under the terms of that convention. The United States also needs to negotiate with Canada, to resolve a dispute over the international boundary with Canada in the Beaufort Sea, the implementation plan says.
And the U.S. needs to continue to play a leading role in developing and implementing standards for ships that operate in Arctic waters. The federal government also needs to propose international ship routing and regulations for waterways such as the Bering Strait, the implementation plan says.
Editor’s note: Part 1 of this story ran in the Feb. 9 issue.
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