Pending US legislation to halt leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil companies would cost the federal government and state of Alaska nearly $1 billion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in a report released on Friday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st June, 2019) Pending US legislation to halt leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil companies would cost the Federal government and state of Alaska nearly $1 billion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in a report released on Friday."CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would result in the collection of fewer offsetting receipts, but also would lower payments to Alaska, which would have the effect of increasing net direct spending by $905 million over the 2019-2029 period," the report said.
CBO explained in the report that leasing and royalty payments are recorded in US government ledgers as negative spending.
To produce the estimate, CBO assumed that the legislation would pass in late 2019 and that oil prices would remain high enough to make drilling economically viable, given costs of between $45 and $55 to extract each barrel of ANWR oil.
A provision in the 2017 US tax reform law requires the Department of the Interior to conduct two sealed-bid-auction lease sales by 2025, with at least 400,000 acres available with each auction, the report said.
The report cited a US Geological Survey estimate that federal land in ANWR contains 7.7 billion barrels of oil that can be extracted using current technology.
The plan has drawn stiff opposition from many members of the US Congress who oppose any development in ANWR.
