The U.S. Department of the Interior released a proposal Jan. 3, 2018 to lease 90 percent of the U.S. outer continental shelf for oil and gas drilling. If approved, it would replace the 2017-2022 program currently in force with 2019-2024 leases and undo a moratorium on Arctic drilling in place since 2016. The proposal includes 12 leases in the Gulf of Mexico, 19 in Alaska, seven in the Pacific and nine in the Atlantic and is the most extensive leasing program proposed for U.S. coastal waters.

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Image: Northstar Island is an artificial island in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and a site of oil and gas drilling. (Wikimedia Commons)