The Biden administration expanded federal protections on millions of acres of wilderness in Alaska on Friday, blocking oil, gas and mining activities in some of the most pristine lands on earth. water.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said it would refuse to grant industrial road permits that the state of Alaska wanted to build through the Arctic National Parks and Refuges Gateway a major copper mine with an estimated value of $7.5 billion. They also announced they would ban drilling in more than half of the 23 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a vast, ecologically sensitive area north of the Arctic Circle.
Together, these two moves 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 from elected leaders in Alaska, where oil and gas revenues make up the bulk of the state’s budget and where mining is the driving force. main part of the economy.
“Alaska’s majestic and rugged lands and waters are among the purest and most remarkable landscapes in the world, sustaining a self-sufficient economy,” President Biden said in a statement. vibrant for Alaska Native communities.”
Part of a pre-Earth Day environmental blitz, Alaska’s announcements are designed to help Mr. Biden cement his climate and conservation legacy, while winning back voters who remain angry about the decision he made last year to approve Willow, oil drilling project worth 8 billion USD in Alaska.
Over the past few weeks, authorities have announced strict new regulations. emissions limits for cars; increase the costs of drilling and mining on public lands while making it easier to conserve those federal lands; and promulgate many regulations Limit toxic chemicals in air and drinking water. Mr. Biden has also expanded the boundaries of some national monuments.
“From protecting sacred lands near the Grand Canyon to protecting Alaska’s treasures, my administration has conserved more than 41 million acres of land and water,” Mr. Biden said. “But as the climate crisis endangers communities across the country, more needs to be done. My administration will continue to take ambitious actions to meet the urgency of the climate crisis, protect America’s lands and waters, and fulfill our responsibility to the world. next generation of Americans.”
The Interior Department has determined that “no action” will be taken on a proposal to build a 211-mile industrial road through the Brooks Range on federal land untouched by man. Known as Ambler Road, the proposed two-lane gravel road would cross 11 rivers and thousands of streams before reaching the site of the copper mine.
The Department of the Interior found that the road would significantly and irreversibly disturb wildlife habitat, pollute salmon spawning grounds, and threaten the hunting and fishing traditions of more 30 Alaska Native communities. The agency is expected to formally deny a road permit to the Alaska state economic development agency in the coming weeks.
Conservationists and tribal leaders called the government’s decision a historic victory.
Chief Brian Ridley, Chairman of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, which represents 42 villages in interior Alaska, said the Ambler Road decision “is a huge step forward in the fight for Indigenous rights and environmental justice.”
But Sen. Dan Sullivan, Republican of Alaska, said the roadblocks were “lawless” and Representative Mary Peltola, a state Democrat, called it “disappointing.”
Farther north, the Interior Department has 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 National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a pristine wilderness on the state’s North Slope, bordered by the Chukchi Sea to the west and the Beaufort Sea to the north.
That decision will not affect the Willow project, the largest new oil field in decades in Alaska, expected to produce up to 180,000 barrels per day over the next 30 years.
Republicans say cutting off millions of acres of land from drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska would weaken national security, lead to higher energy prices and cost Alaska billions in money. tax.
“The Biden administration is satisfied with our adversaries producing energy and dominating the world’s critical mineral markets while shutting down those markets in the United States,” Mr. Sullivan said at a news conference on Thursday, joined by the state’s senior senator, Lisa Murkowski, and nine others. Republicans in the Senate.
Mr. Biden “is destabilizing our national security in ways that most people did not think possible,” Ms. Murkowski said. She accused the Biden administration of wanting to “lock up Alaska.”
US oil production reached record levels and the United States is the world’s leading exporter of liquefied natural gas.
Oil industry leaders suggested they would challenge the legality of the administration’s actions.
“This misguided rule by the Biden Administration has significantly limited future oil and natural gas development in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, an area that Congress clearly intended to enhance America’s energy security while generating important economic growth and revenue for local communities in Alaska,” said analyst 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 the rift among Alaska Natives who are already divided over the future of fossil fuels in the Arctic, a region both deeply threatened by climate change and dependent on oil to get a job.
As the planet warms due to greenhouse gas emissions associated with oil, gas and coal, Alaska is warming at a faster rate than the lower 48 states. That means the state is facing more coastal erosion, melting permafrost and sea ice, unstable ground and more wildfires.
At the same time, about 95% of the $410 million annual budget of the North Slope Borough, which borders the oil reserve, comes from local taxes on oil and gas activities. “There is no other economy for our region,” said Doreen Leavitt, natural resources director for the Inupiat Communities on the Arctic Slope.
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, about 600 miles north of Anchorage, was established in 1923 as a source of oil for the U.S. Navy.
It is the largest tract of public land in the United States. Despite its “oil” name, some of the most valuable fish and wildlife habitat in the Arctic Coastal Plain is located within protected areas.
“It’s so misunderstood by the public,” said Gerrit Vyn, a Cornell Lab of Ornithology producer and videographer who has documented migratory birds in the Arctic.
“People think of it as just wind-swept tundra, but NPR-A is the largest wetland area in the polar Arctic, with a high concentration of nesting shorebirds,” Vyn said. highest of any place in the world.”
The areas that will be protected under the Interior Department’s decision include habitat for grizzly bears, caribou and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds. Administration officials said they view the new actions as a “firewall” against both future fossil fuel leasing and expansion of existing projects on the North Slope.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said this move was in response to concerns from the Alaska Native communities have relied on land, water and wildlife to support their lives for thousands of years.
Rosemary Ahtuangaruak is the former mayor of Nuiqsut, an Inupiat community of just 550 people and the village closest to the Willow site.
“For too long, oil and gas executives have been prioritized over our voices and the needs of living communities,” Ms. Ahtuangaruak, who now runs an environmental group in Alaska, said in a statement. here”.
“The Administration must continue to build on these important protections to protect wildlife habitat and the health of our Alaska Native communities, so that we can continue to maintain and pass on the traditions and activities of our elders for many years to come.”
