Biden protects millions of acres of Alaska wilderness from drilling and mining

The Biden administration on Friday expanded federal protections to millions of acres of wilderness in Alaska, blocking oil, gas and mining operations on some of the country’s untouched lands.

The Interior Department says it will deny approval for an industrial road the Alaska state government wants to build through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve to reach a massive copper deposit estimated to be worth $7.5 billion. It also announced it would ban drilling in more than half of the 23 million-acre Alaska National Petroleum Refuge, an ecologically sensitive area north of the Arctic Circle.

Together, the two measures constitute one of the largest efforts in history to protect Alaskan lands from drilling and mining. They are expected to face challenges from industry as well as elected leaders in Alaska, where oil and gas revenues make up the bulk of the state’s budget and mining is a major driver of the state’s economy.

“Alaska’s majestic and rugged lands and waters are among the most dramatic and healthy landscapes in the world, supporting vibrant subsistence economies for Alaska Native communities,” President Biden said in the statement.

Part of an environmental blitz ahead of Earth Day, the Alaska announcement is intended to help Biden solidify his legacy on climate and environmental protection and win back voters still angry about his decision last year to approve Willow, The project is an $8 billion oil drilling program.

In the past few weeks, the administration has announced tough emissions limits for new vehicles; raised the cost of drilling and mining on public lands while making it easier to protect those federal lands; and enacted a series of regulations to limit emissions in the air and drinking water. Toxic chemicals. Biden also expanded the boundaries of several national monuments.

“From protecting sacred sites near the Grand Canyon to protecting Alaska’s treasures, my administration has protected more than 41 million acres of land and water,” Biden said. But as the climate crisis threatens communities across the country, we must do more. My administration will continue to take ambitious action to address the urgency of the climate crisis, protect America’s lands and waters, and fulfill our responsibility to the next generation of Americans.

The Interior Department has decided it should not take action on a proposal to build a 211-mile industrial road through the Brooks Mountains on federal land untouched by humans. The proposed two-lane gravel road, known as Ambler Road, would cross 11 rivers and thousands of streams before reaching the copper deposits.

The Interior Department found that the road would severely and irreversibly disturb wildlife habitat, contaminate salmon spawning grounds, and threaten the hunting and fishing traditions of more than 30 Alaska Native communities. The agency is expected to formally deny the Alaska Economic Development Agency’s road permit in the coming weeks.

Environmentalists and tribal leaders called the government’s decision a historic victory.

Chief Brian Ridley, Chairman of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, The group, which represents 42 villages in Interior Alaska, said the Ambler Road decision is a landmark step forward in the fight for Indigenous rights and environmental justice.

But Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said blocking the roads was an act of lawlessness, while Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, called the move disappointing.

Farther north, the Interior Department finalized a rule to withdraw 13 million acres of Arctic tundra from future oil and gas drilling. It ensures maximum protection for more than half of the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, a vast expanse of pristine wilderness on the state’s North Slope, bounded by the Chukchi Sea to the west and the Beaufort Sea to the north.

The decision will not affect the Willow project, Alaska’s largest new oil field in decades and expected to produce 180,000 barrels per day over the next 30 years.

Republicans say cutting off millions of acres of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve from oil drilling would weaken national security, cause energy prices to rise and deprive Alaska of billions of dollars in tax revenue.

“The Biden administration is comfortable with our adversaries producing energy and dominating the world’s critical mineral markets and shutting down mineral markets in the United States,” Sullivan said at a news conference Thursday, joined by the state’s senior senator, Lisa Murkowski and others. Nine Senate Republicans also attended the news conference.

Murkowski said Biden is destabilizing our country’s security in a way that most people think is impossible. She accused the Biden administration of wanting to blockade Alaska.

U.S. oil production is at record levels and the United States is the world’s leading exporter of liquefied natural gas.

Oil industry leaders said they would question the legality of the government’s actions.

The Biden administration’s misguided rule severely limits future oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, a region that Congress clearly hopes will strengthen U.S. energy security while generating important economic growth and revenue for Alaska’s local communities, Dustin Meyer, senior vice president for policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s main lobbying group, said in a statement.

The rule also widens rifts among Alaska Natives, who are already divided over the future of fossil fuels in the Arctic, a region threatened by climate change and dependent on oil for jobs.

Alaska is heating up faster than the Lower 48 states as greenhouse gas emissions related to oil, natural gas and coal warm the planet. That means the state is experiencing more coastal erosion, melting permafrost and sea ice, ground instability and more wildfires.

Meanwhile, the North Slope Municipality, which borders the oil reserves, gets about 95 percent of its $410 million annual budget from local taxes on oil and gas operations. Doreen Leavitt, natural resources director for the Arctic Slope Inuit community, said there is no other economy in our region.

The Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, located about 600 miles north of Anchorage, was established in 1923 as a source of oil for the U.S. Navy.

It is the largest single piece of public land in the United States. Despite the oil in its name, some of the Arctic Coastal Plain’s most valuable fish and wildlife habitat is located within the reserve.

Gerrit Vyn, a producer and photographer at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology who has documented migratory birds in the Arctic, says there is so much misunderstanding.

People think it’s just a windswept tundra, but NPR-A is the Arctic’s largest wetland and has the highest density of nesting shorebirds in the world, Mr. Wien said.

Areas that will be protected include the habitats of grizzly bears, polar bears, caribou and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, according to the Interior Department’s decision. Administration officials said they view the new action as a firewall against future fossil fuel leasing and expansion of existing plans on the North Slope.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said the move was in response to public concerns For thousands of years, Alaska Native communities have relied on land, water and wildlife to sustain their way of life.

Rosemary Ahtuangaruak is the former mayor of Nuiqsut, an Inupiat community of only 550 people and the closest village to the Willow site.

Oil and gas executives have long prioritized our voices and the needs of the communities who live here, Ms. Atuan Garuk, who now runs an environmental group in Alaska, said in a statement.

She added that the government must continue to strengthen these important conservation measures to protect wildlife habitat and the health of Alaska Native communities so that we can continue to sustain and pass on the traditions and activities of our elders for years to come.