Fourteen AGs Filed Comments Opposing Seismic Surveying in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

NOVEMBER 6, 2020

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson led a coalition of 14 attorneys general in filing comments opposing a plan to conduct seismic surveying for oil and gas resources within the sensitive Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In their comments, the attorneys general warned that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has “failed to provide the public with any information about the environmental impacts” of the plan, which are expected to be significant given that it will likely involve “seismic testing across a third of the Coastal Plain and construction of hundreds of miles of snow access trails, multiple airstrips, and thousands of miles of receiver lines.” The attorneys general also noted that the company responsible for conducting the proposed seismic surveying is currently the subject of a fraud enforcement action by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, “raising significant doubt about its ability to perform in compliance with applicable laws.”