US-Canada Climate Change Agreement Signals Potential Hurdles for Offshore Atlantic Drilling

The new US-Canadian environmental agreement is aimed largely at cutting methane emissions and preserving the Arctic, but it could have repercussions on the other end of the continent. In the next few weeks, the Obama administration is expected to announce a revised plan for offshore oil and gas exploration that might open much of the Atlantic coast for the first time in decades. A draft released in early 2015 has drawn intense opposition in towns up and down the coast, though governors of most of the affected states have come out in support of the plans. But the deal that President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau laid out last Thursday at the White House signals new hurdles for companies interested in the far North. The question the Southeast is now asking is whether that means tougher rules for would-be drillers there — or whether it will only increase pressure on Obama to allow Atlantic exploration...more