Photo: US Fish and Wildlife Service/Getty Images
The Joe Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will cancel seven oil and gas leases that were authorized by the Donald Trump administration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and that it will protect more than 13 million acres of the Federal National Petroleum Reserve. in Alaska, hampering an attempt that has been underway for years to drill for subsoil oil and gas in that protected region, in what may be the most radical environmental conservation action by the federal government in 20 years.
The cancellation of the leases will affect Alaska’s state oil development agency, the Alaska Export and Industrial Development Authority (ANWR), which bought the leases covering about 365,000 acres on the Alaskan coastal plain during the Trump administration.
“With today’s action, no one will have the right to drill for oil in one of the most sensitive landscapes on Earth,” Home Secretary Deb Haaland told reporters at a news conference. “Public lands belong to all Americans, and there are some places where oil and gas extraction and industrial development just don’t belong.”
The Biden administration, in the larger of two major steps, proposes ora permanent ban on oil and gas development on 10.6 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska (NPR-A), the largest stretch of public land in the country. The White House promised such a move earlier this year to assuage concerns over its approval of the Willow oil drilling project.
The proposed rule would expressly prohibit new oil and gas leases on 10.6 million acres, or more than 40% of NPR-A, according to an Interior Department news release.
The protected area would encompass areas including Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok Highlands, Colville River, Kasegaluk Lagoon and Peard Bay Special Areas, home to caribou, polar and gray bears, and migratory birds.
The new regulations also reverse a Trump-era rule that expands oil and gas development in the area and reduces protections for habitat and animals, while protecting the subsistence hunting and gathering of Alaska Native communities living in the area.
Biden said in a statement that Alaska is full of “stunning natural wonders” that need protection. “As the climate crisis heats the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the world, we have a responsibility to protect this precious region for all ages,” Biden said.
Wednesday’s actions, Biden said, “will help preserve our Arctic lands and wildlife, while honoring the enduring culture, history and wisdom of Alaska Natives who have lived on these lands since time immemorial.”
Keep reading:
– They reveal the first images of an iceberg detached from Antarctica that is similar in size to London
– What is the controversial Willow Project, one of the largest oil exploitation plans in the history of Alaska that Biden has just approved
– Who owns the Arctic and why it is controversial to exploit its resources