"The Biden administration’s decision to include restrictions in the auction of oil drilling rights in part of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is legally vulnerable as the state looks to the next administration to allow more oil development.
The Bureau of Land Management on Monday finalized a decision to lease 400,000 acres of the Arctic coastal plain within ANWR for oil and gas development as required under a 2017 tax law. The lease sale, scheduled for Jan. 9, is the second of two such sales that the law requires.
The decision included a long list of restrictions on drilling, such as keeping more than 1 million acres of the coastal plain unavailable for leasing and blocking all land-surface development on 58% of the land area included in the lease sale. Of the 400,000 acres up for lease, the BLM expects just 995 surface acres to be developed as wells tap a far greater area underground.
The bureau’s decision says the leasing plan effectively upholds the refuge’s mission to protect ecosystems while also allowing for oil drilling."
Bobby Magill reports for Bloomberg Environment December 12, 2024.
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