US prepares for second oil and Gas Auction in Alaska Refuge
Interior Department announced on Wednesday that the Biden administration had taken a major step toward holding the required sale of oil-and-gas leases in a wildlife refuge in Alaska by publishing a final environment review.
The analysis presented a preferred scenario in which the agency offered 400,000 acres of land to drillers. This is the minimum permitted under a law passed in 2017 that required oil and gas leases sales within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, including one before the end 2024.
The Interior Department of U.S. president Joe Biden set in motion the analysis in 2021. This was a few years after the former administration of Donald Trump, who sold oil and natural gas leases on the refuge during the last days of his presidency.
The agency will be in 2023
Cancellation of leases
The Trump sale was the subject of a statement citing an environmental analysis that was flawed.
Biden pledged to protect the 19,6 million-acre (7,9 million-hectare) refuge that includes polar bears and caribous.
The document was released the day after Trump's victory over Biden's Vice President, Kamalah Harris, in the Presidential election.
Interior will make a decision within 30 days of the publication of the environmental assessment. After that decision, a lease sale will be planned. (Reporting and editing by Nichola Broom; reporting by Deepa Babington).
(source: Reuters)
