Executive Order 13795: Offshore energy

What the Executive Order Says

Executive Order (EO) 13795 is entitled "Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy" and has 13 sections.

Section 1

This section provides the rationale for accelerating off-shore drilling.

Section 2

This section states the policy.  The focus is on expanding exploration for oil and gas, including off-shore resources.  It does state that this is to be done in ways that "any such activity is safe and environmentally responsible."  Clearly what is meant by "safe and environmentally responsible" is the topic of interest.

Section 3

This section outlines that the goal here is to explore off-shore regions for potential mining and/or drilling for gas or oil.  This means that the government needs to try and make the areas available for exploration and also provide the permits required to do this exploration in a way that does not overly burden industry with regulations.

Section 4

This section has several subsections.  There is first a prohibition against the expansion of any Marine Sanctuary.  Second, there is a review of existing Marine Sanctuaries and National Monuments.  Note that this review is somewhat different that that which was announced in a recent EO.  And finally, there is a revocation of a previous EO signed under the former President to reduce the regulatory requirements.

Section 5

This section re-defines previous memos to read something different.  I cannot really make out what the difference is because I am not able to look at the originals.

Section 6

This section directs the review of two different items, one being a notice so lessees, the other being BOEM's financial regulatory policy.  Again, all of this is to reduce the regulatory burden on oil and gas companies drilling offshore.

Section 7

This section directs the Secretary of the Interior to review with the intent to revise or withdraw a rule regarding safety systems to prevent wells from blowing out and spewing oil and stuff all over the place such as the large spill in the Gulf of Mexico many years ago.

Section 8

This section directs the Secretary of the Interior to review with the intent to revise or withdraw a rule regarding air quality of off-shore oil and gas operations.

Section 9

This section directs the Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of the Interior to expedite certain kinds of requests that have to be controlled which deal with effects of human activity on the marine environment.  In other words, the EO is directing that the government agencies simply rubber stamp the requests.

Section 10

This section directs the Secretary of Commerce to review a technical report from NOAA.  This document defines limits on how loud human activities can be before becoming dangerous to the hearing of marine mammals such as whales.  The point of this EO is that if the cost of being able to have the large oil companies exploit off-shore oil fields is some deaf whales, then the administration is ok with that.

Section 11

This section directs the Secretary of the Interior to review and issue a notice with regards to changing a rule on drilling in the Arctic.

Section 12

This section includes a definition for "Planning Areas" which references a 2015 BOEM document which had been developed and approved under the previous President's term.

Section 13

This section has the usual legal clauses required to assure the constitutionality of the Executive Order.

My Commentary

I disagree with the direction that this EO is attempting to take the country.  This EO smacks of a returned favor to the Oil industry who have supported Republicans for a long time.  There is a need for oil and gas in the economy.  From a national security perspective, it would be good to be independent from foreign oil, especially that which comes from Canada, so that these foreign countries cannot use energy supplies as leverage such as what happened in the 1970's at the time of OPEC's establishment.  However, because of the fragility of the environment, the scale of potential impacts in the case of a single accident, and the non-transparency of the administration, the safeguards are in place for very good reasons.  They are in place such that responsibility is taken to assure that all phases of resource extraction are done with a minimal amount of impact to the environment, especially when this environment is pristine such as off the west coast, especially near Alaska.
One thing that strikes me is that some of the directives made in this EO seem to be saying effectively "just pretend that document doesn't exist".  Fundamentally, we are trusting that the civil servants who should be subject matter experts in these fields are able to look at the science around a specific requirement and come to a conclusion as to whether the science is valid or not.  Wishing reports and/or evidence away does not change facts.  I trust that regardless, the civil servants will work with facts to the best of their ability.