Biden Administration Orders New Review of Drilling in Arctic

Politics|The Biden medication orders a caller reappraisal of lipid and state improvement successful the Arctic.

• Aug. 3, 2021, 1:38 p.m. ET

The Biden medication volition undertake a caller biology reappraisal of imaginable lipid and state improvement successful the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge successful Alaska aft citing what it called superior flaws successful the initial reappraisal during the Trump presidency.

The Interior Department volition record a announcement of intent successful the Federal Register connected Wednesday that begins the process of conducting a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the lipid and state leasing programme successful the refuge’s 1.6-million-acre coastal plain. The announcement says the investigation volition see “addressing the deficiencies” successful the archetypal Trump-era interaction statement.

The announcement of the caller review, which begins with a 60-day nationalist remark period, is the latest determination by the medication of President Biden to unravel immoderate of the pro-drilling achievements of the Trump White House. Mr. Biden opposes lipid improvement successful the refuge, which totals 19 cardinal mostly pristine acres and is location to migrating caribou, polar bears and different wildlife.

The coastal plain, which is thought to overlie reserves containing billions of barrels of oil, had been off-limits to lipid improvement for decades. That changed successful 2017, erstwhile the Republican bulk successful Congress approved an lipid and state leasing program.

An Interior Department agency, the Bureau of Land Management, produced an biology interaction connection successful 2019. It was fixed last support successful September, and leases for immoderate tracts successful the refuge were sold successful the waning days of the Trump administration.

But 2 months ago, successful an bid that infuriated pro-development Alaskan lawmakers, the Interior Department suspended the leases pending a caller review. The bid said that among the flaws successful the archetypal interaction statement, it failed to decently analyse a scope of alternatives for leasing little acreage successful the refuge, arsenic required nether national biology laws.

Environmental and conservation groups hailed the announcement of the caller review.

In a statement, Kristen Miller, acting enforcement manager of the Alaska Wilderness League, called it “good news,” but said imperishable extortion of the refuge was needed.

“Until those leases are canceled and the Arctic Refuge drilling mandate reversed, 1 of the wildest places near successful America volition stay nether threat,” she said.