Biden Administration Suspends Oil Leases in Arctic Refuge--7th Update
June 01 2021 - 6:28PM
Dow Jones News
By Timothy Puko
WASHINGTON -- The Biden administration on Tuesday suspended oil
leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, blocking
plans for the first-ever drilling program in the pristine
19-million-acre wilderness.
The Interior Department said the program will be on hold until
it completes a comprehensive analysis under the National
Environmental Policy Act. The review could ultimately lead to the
leases being voided altogether, the department said.
"Today marks an important step forward fulfilling President
Biden's promise to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,"
Gina McCarthy, the White House national climate adviser, said in a
statement. Drilling could change "the character of this special
place forever," she added.
The decision is the latest twist in more than 30 years of
fights, often highly partisan, over how to manage what many
consider some of the country's last unspoiled wilderness.
Republicans and oil interests are still adamantly pushing for
industry's right to explore this remote northeast corner of Alaska.
Even so, it comes at a time when the industry's interest in working
there has waned significantly.
Under pressure from Wall Street to reduce costs and raise
profits, oil companies have been shying away from expensive and
delicate megaprojects, damping interest even in what was considered
among the last great frontiers in North American oil.
The bidding process in the Arctic refuge, finished days before
former President Donald Trump left office, produced no offers from
major oil companies, and only $14 million in high bids -- far from
the billion dollars projected by the Congressional Budget Office
just three years before.
Even so, oil industry groups supported the leasing to ensure
future access to the region. Kevin O'Scannlain, vice president of
upstream policy at the American Petroleum Institute, said most
Alaskans also supported drilling in the refuge.
"Policies aimed at slowing or stopping oil and natural gas
production on federal lands and waters will ultimately prove
harmful to our national security, environmental progress and
economic strength," he said in a statement.
Mr. O'Scannlain had been one of the top lawyers at Interior
overseeing the program's development under Mr. Trump and noted that
the agency had completed an analysis under the National
Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. Finished in 2019, the analysis
found that the program would have a negligible environmental
impact.
But the Interior Department now says a review -- ordered by
President Biden on his first day in office -- identified defects in
the Trump administration's final decision to approve new oil leases
in the refuge.
That is because the first environmental impact analysis under
NEPA from 2019 didn't properly analyze "a reasonable range" of
alternatives for allowing and managing oil development while
mitigating environmental harm, the Department said Tuesday.
The refuge -- an area about the size of South Carolina where
Alaska meets the Beaufort Sea and Canada's Yukon -- is home to
polar bears and caribou herds. It has few people and roads and has
been off limits to drillers, miners and other developers for
decades.
The Trump administration had been developing the oil program
under a congressional mandate, passed under Republican leadership
in the tax overhaul of 2017, to lease oil rights in the coastal
plain of the refuge. The first lease sale was finished just days
before Mr. Trump left office.
But Mr. Biden, as a presidential candidate, had pledged to find
ways to stop the program and restore protections for the
refuge.
His administration's decision Tuesday was cheered by
environmentalists. Many have expressed disappointment that the
administration in recent weeks has filed court arguments supporting
several oil and mining projects on federal land, including other
spots in the Alaskan Arctic.
The decisions, which the administration said were based strictly
on legal considerations, improved Mr. Biden's standing with some
lawmakers in Western oil-producing states, whose support Mr. Biden
needs to get his nominees and initiatives through Congress.
Timothy Puko contributed to this article.
Write to Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 01, 2021 18:28 ET (22:28 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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