The Biden administration will suspend controversial leases issued under the previous administration for drilling at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to multiple reports.
Politico reported that the leases will be halted amid a further environmental review, while The Washington Post reported that the suspension would come on the grounds that the auction in which they were sold was rushed and didn’t follow correct procedures.
The Interior Department declined to comment.
In a Day One executive order, President Biden
Joe BidenBill that would mandate Asian-American history lessons in Illinois schools heads to governor’s desk Five things to know about the new spotlight on UFOs Biden shows little desire to reverse Trump’s Cuba policies MORE ordered the Interior Department to temporarily halt all activities relating to oil and gas leasing at the refuge. The order cited “alleged legal deficiencies underlying the program, including the inadequacy of the environmental review.”
He also opposed drilling there on the campaign trail, pledging to “permanently” protect the Alaska refuge, which is home to grizzly bears, polar bears, gray wolves and more than 200 species of birds and contains land considered sacred by the Gwich’in people.
However, a 2017 law requires the federal government to hold two lease sales to allow for drilling at the refuge, one by the end of this year and another by the end of 2024.
The first of those sales was already held at the tail end of the Trump administration and garnered just a fraction of what supporters had estimated.
Proponents of drilling at the refuge have argued it would create jobs and generate revenue, while opponents have raised concerns about wildlife, climate change and the Gwich’in people, who hunt caribou there and consider the land sacred.
The reports follow a separate move by the administration in support of a separate Trump-approved drilling project in the state at the National Petroleum Reserve — Alaska.
