User:907Mackenzie808/sandbox

President Trump issued an appeal to repeal President Obamas ban on offshore drilling in the 120 million acres of the arctic Arctic on April 28, 2017. Part of this was to reinsert the Arctic in the five year plan for offshore drilling and revoking the protection of the Arctic ocean as set fourth by President Obama. Judge Sharon L. Gleason of the United States District Court for the District of Alaska ruled that President Barack Obama's 2015 and 2016 protection on the Arctic Ocean and portions of the Atlantic would remain in full affect until revoked by Congress. She ruled that President Trump's withdraw of the protection was unlawful and exceeded the authority of the President.

An oil spill occurring anywhere in the world is a very lengthy and difficult mess to clean up, however an oil spill in the Arctic would be even more difficult to clean due to physical and chemical properties of the environment. Evaporation being the most important process affecting oil behavior, is very limited in the arctic due to cold temperatures. Ice interactions also make it very easily dispersed and far more difficult to contain and clean up. In addition to an oil spill being more difficult to clean up, solely just the presence of it can continue to further melt the already struggling ice caps. Oil is capable of absorbing more heat from the sun than sea ice is. In a study conducted by Chen in 1972, the temperature of oil trapped under the snow was 3-6 degrees celcius higher than the air temperature. To further add to the difficulty of cleaning it up, much of the oil is often hidden from view due to drainage through cracks in the sea ice ors snow or simply just residing under the surface of the ice or snow. With so many variables there needs to be more research on the prediction of oil movements in the case of a spill in the Arctic  , because there is little understanding of its projected movement it would be difficult to know where it would end up accumulating.