Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy Volume 8 Issue 1 3-1-2018 Arctic Law & Policy Year in Review: 2017 Arctic Law & Policy Institute, University of Washington Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wjelp Part of the Environmental Law Commons Recommended Citation Arctic Law & Policy Institute, University of Washington, Arctic Law & Policy Year in Review: 2017, 8 WASH. J. ENVTL. L. & POL'Y 106 (2018). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wjelp/vol8/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at UW Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy by an authorized editor of UW Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. : Arctic Law & Policy Year in Review: 2017 Copyright © 2018 by Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy ARCTIC LAW & POLICY YEAR IN REVIEW: 2017 Arctic Law & Policy Institute, University of Washington* I. INTRODUCTION: ARCTIC NEWS HIGHLIGHTS According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2017 Arctic Report Card, while 2017 did not shatter as many records as 2016, the Arctic shows no sign of returning to the reliably frozen region it was decades ago.1 Arctic temperatures continue to increase at double the global rate.2 2017 marked the end of the United States’ chairmanship of the Arctic Council and the beginning of another term for Finland. At the May 11, 2017 Fairbanks Ministerial hosted by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson – the first ministerial in which all eight member states were represented by their Foreign Ministers – the Arctic Council member states adopted the Fairbanks Declaration and the Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation, the council’s third legally binding agreement. The purpose of the Agreement is “to enhance cooperation in Scientific Activities in order to increase effectiveness and efficiency in the development of scientific knowledge about the Arctic.”3 During its two-year chairmanship Finland intends to emphasize the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) while working to strengthen Arctic cooperation and its continuity at the highest political level. * Craig H. Allen, Judson Falknor Professor of Law, Director, UW Arctic Law and Policy Institute, with assistance from Malina Dumas (UW Law ’18). 1. Arctic Report Card: Update for 2017, ARCTIC PROGRAM, http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Report-Card-2017 (last visited Jan. 25, 2018). 2. Id. 3. Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation, U.S. DEP’T. OF STATE, (May 11, 2017), https://www.state.gov/e/oes/rls/other/2017/270809.htm. 106 Published by UW Law Digital Commons, 2018 1 Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy, Vol. 8, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 4 2018] 2017 ARCTIC YEAR IN REVIEW 107 On June 1, 2017, President Trump announced that the U.S. would cease all participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation.4 In November 2017, delegations from the five States that border the Arctic Ocean (Canada, Denmark/Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Norway, Russia and the U.S.), four States whose vessels engage in distant water fishing operations (China, Iceland, Japan and South Korea) and the European Union, on behalf of its member States, met in Washington, DC, to negotiate a draft a legally binding agreement to prevent illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the high seas area of the Central Arctic Ocean. A sign, perhaps, of waning Arctic interest, two media sources of Arctic reporting and analysis ceased publication in 2017. Alaska Dispatch News (ADN.com) filed for bankruptcy on August 13, 2017. Its assets were acquired by new owners who rebranded the publication as Anchorage Daily News. New York-based digital media project Arctic Deeply ceased publication on September 15, 2017. Calling the move a “transition,” the announcement indicated that Arctic-related news would be included in the Oceans Deeply newsletter service. 5 Arctic Council Ministerial The United States hosted the Arctic Council’s 10th Ministerial in Fairbanks, Alaska, from May 10-11, 2017. Ministers representing the eight Arctic States, joined by representatives of the six Permanent Participant organizations, adopted the 20-page, 46-point Fairbanks Declaration.6 The Declaration addressed: Arctic Ocean Safety, Security and Stewardship, Improving Economic and Living Condition, Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change, and Strengthening the Arctic Council. 4. Paris climate deal: Trump pulls US out of 2015 accord, BBC NEWS, (June 1, 2017), http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40127326. 5. John Thompson, Thank You, Deeply: An important message for the Arctic Deeply community. ARCTIC DEEPLY, (Sept. 15, 2017), https://www.newsdeeply.com/arctic/articles/2017/09/15/thank-you-deeply. 6. Fairbanks Declaration, ARCTIC COUNCIL, (May 11, 2017), https://oaarchive.arctic- council.org/bitstream/handle/11374/1910/EDOCS-4339-v1- ACMMUS10_FAIRBANKS_2017_Fairbanks_Declaration_Brochure_Version_w_Layou t.PDF?sequence=8&isAllowed=y. https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wjelp/vol8/iss1/4 2 : Arctic Law & Policy Year in Review: 2017 108 WASH. J. ENVT’L L. & POL’Y [Vol. 8:1 Senior Arctic Officials Meetings Under the U.S. Arctic Council chairmanship, the Senior Arctic Officials met twice in 2017: in Juneau, Alaska from March 7-9, 2017, and in Anchorage, Alaska from May 8-9, 2017. Under Finland’s chairmanship, the SAOs met from October 25-26, 2017 in Oulu, Finland. Arctic Scientific Cooperation The Arctic Council member States adopted the Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation at the May 11, 2017 Ministerial in Fairbanks, Alaska. It is the Council’s third binding agreement. Arctic Ice Conditions: Older sea ice tends to be thicker, stronger, and better able to bounce back from unfavorable conditions. In 2017, these ice cover continued to be relatively young and thin with older, thicker ice comprising only 21percent of the ice cover in 2017 compared to 45 percent in 1985. The winter ice maximum on March 7, 2017was the lowest on record (which goes back to 1979), eight percent lower than the average ice maximum between 1981 and 2010. Arctic sea ice extent for December 2017 averaged 4.54 million square miles, the second lowest in the 1979 to 2017 satellite record.7 Arctic Climate Conditions: The average surface air temperature for the reporting year ending September 2017 was the second warmest since 1900; however, cooler spring and summer temperatures contributed to a rebound in snow cover in the Eurasian Arctic, slower summer sea ice loss, and below-average melt extent for the Greenland ice sheet.8 Sea temperatures are climbing: surface temperatures in the Barents and Chukchi Sea are 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit above the average.9 Vegetation and greening is taking over tundra, accompanying record permafrost thawing.10 U.S. Oil and Gas Activities 7. Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis, NATIONAL SNOW & ICE DATA CENTER, http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2018). 8. Arctic Report Card: Update for 2017, Arctic Program, http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Report-Card-2017 (last visited Jan. 25, 2018). 9. Id.. 10. Id.. Published by UW Law Digital Commons, 2018 3 Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy, Vol. 8, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 4 2018] 2017 ARCTIC YEAR IN REVIEW 109 After dipping as low as $28/barrel in 2015, and as low as $47/barrel in 2017, Brent crude oil futures (the global benchmark for oil prices) recovered to close in late December 2017 at $67/barrel. On Jan. 9, 2018, the U.S. Energy Information Administration published its Short-Term Energy Outlook, forecasting Brent crude to average around $60 a barrel in 2018 and $61 in 2019.11 On January 17, 2017—three days before leaving office— Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell approved a 2017-2022 OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program and issued a Record of Decision (ROD) for the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Under the Obama Administration program, some 94 percent of the OCS, including all of the federal OCS lease areas in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, were to be off limits for oil and gas leasing.12 Upon taking office on January 20, 2017, the Trump Administration announced that it would revisit the decision. On January 4, 2018, Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke announced a draft National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (National OCS Program) for 2019-2024, which proposes to make over 90 percent of the total OCS acreage and more than 98 percent of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in federal offshore areas under consideration for future exploration and development.13 In February 2017 Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum announced it had found an estimated 35 million to 100 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in the Norwegian Barents Sea.14 The prospect — known as Filicudi — could contain up to 700 million barrels. Russia’s Yamal gas plant opened on December 8, 2017. When fully operational, the plant is expected to reach an 11. Short-Term Energy Outlook, U.S. Energy Information Administration (2017), https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/pdf/steo_full.pdf. 12. 2017-2022 OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program, BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, https://www.boem.gov/National-OCS-Program-for-2017-2022/ (last visited Jan. 24, 2018). 13. Press Release, Dep’t of the Interior, Secretary Zinke Announces Plan for Unleashing America’s Offshore Oil and Gas Potential (Jan. 4, 2018), https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-zinke-announces-plan-unleashing- americas-offshore-oil-and-gas-potential. 14. Richard Milne, Lundin outlines oil discovery in Norwegian Arctic, FINANCIAL TIMES (Feb. 13, 2017), https://www.ft.com/content/39ae2020-f1e4-11e6-8758- 6876151821a6. https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wjelp/vol8/iss1/4 4 : Arctic Law & Policy Year in Review: 2017 110 WASH.