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The White House on Wednesday cancelled controversial oil leases in an Alaskan wildlife reserve that were awarded during the final days of the Trump administration. This decision is part of a broader effort to restrict Arctic drilling and enhance the administration’s environmental reputation. The leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge were initially issued on January 6, 2021, shortly before Trump left office. However, they were later suspended by the interior department of the Biden administration for numerous legal deficiencies.
Deb Haaland, the interior secretary, stated that this cancellation reflects President Joe Biden’s commitment to the most ambitious climate and conservation agenda in history. Despite the symbolic nature of the move and the minimal interest in drilling within the leased territory, environmentalists and some indigenous leaders praised the decision. The Sierra Club hailed it as a “historic move” that protects the Arctic landscape.
Republican allies of the oil industry in Congress criticized the decision, calling it part of President Biden’s detrimental energy policy. The cancelation of the oil leases in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve is seen as damaging to the region’s economic activity. Despite the cancellation, concerns remain about the approval of ConocoPhillips’s $8bn Willow oil project in the NPR, which sparked outrage among environmentalists.
In addition, the White House proposed formal rules on Wednesday to protect the country’s largest bloc of public land, the NPR. These rules will prohibit new oil and gas leasing in approximately 40% of the area. President Biden faces the challenge of balancing aggressive decarbonization targets with the need to maintain energy security for a nation that consumes a fifth of the world’s oil output.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is estimated to contain around 8 billion barrels of recoverable oil. However, this constitutes only a fraction of US reserves. The US has become the world’s largest oil producer due to drilling in shale deposits in the lower 48 states.
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