The U.S. is falling behind in geoscience information gathering, exploration activity and offshore energy development due to the bureaucratic delays caused by the vague language and broken regulatory processes in the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).
The MMPA was created to protect marine mammal populations, not to be used as a tool by anti-energy groups to prevent exploration activities. This regulatory inefficiency means investment that was once allocated in the United States is going elsewhere.
Geoscience surveys are a fundamental step in developing energy.
Discover how many surveys were conducted globally in the last decade and last year, by moving the slider below.
2021 – Geoscience industry identifies mathematical errors in current ITR permitting process, NMFS begins process to reevaluate and correct errors
2024 – NMFS amends the ITR, ultimately making few changes in what was one of many delays that contributed to the steady decline of geoscience surveys in the GOA since 2014
2024 – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service publishes a rule to revise ITR of polar bears and Pacific walruses on and around the North Slope of Alaska
2024 – At least one petition for MMPA authorization has stalled for more than two years, preventing updated insight into the resource potential on Alaska’s North Slope
