The Biden administration extended federal protections to millions of acres of wilderness in Alaska on Friday, blocking oil, gas and mining operations in some of the country’s most pristine lands.
The Interior Department said it would deny a permit for an industrial road that the state of Alaska wanted to build through the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve to reach a large copper deposit estimated to be worth $7.5 billion. He also announced that he would ban drilling in more than half of the 23 million-acre Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, an ecologically sensitive area north of the Arctic Circle.
Together, the two moves amount to one of the largest efforts in history to protect Alaskan land 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 a large part of the state budget and where mining is the main driver of the economy.
“Alaska’s majestic and rugged lands and waters are among the most remarkable and healthy landscapes in the world, sustaining a vibrant subsistence economy for Alaska Native communities,” President Biden said in a statement.
Part of an environmental boom ahead of Earth Day, the Alaska announcements are designed to help Mr. Biden cement his legacy on climate and conservation and win back voters who are still angry about the decision he made. last year to approve Willow, an $8 billion oil drilling project. Alaska.
In recent weeks, the administration has announced tough new emissions limits for cars. increased the cost of drilling and mining on public lands while making it easier to preserve those federal lands. and issued a series of regulations to limit toxic chemicals in air and drinking water. Mr. Biden has also expanded the boundaries of several national monuments.
“From protecting sacred lands near the Grand Canyon to protecting Alaska’s treasures, my administration has preserved more than 41 million acres of land and water,” Mr. Biden said. “But as the climate crisis puts communities across the country at risk, more needs to be done. 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 that “no action” should be taken on a proposal to build a 211-mile industrial road through the Brooks Range on federal land that has remained untouched by humans. Known as Ambler Road, the proposed two-lane dirt road would cross 11 rivers and thousands of streams before reaching the site of a copper mine.
The Department of the Interior found that the road would significantly and irreversibly disturb wildlife habitats, 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 road permit to the Alaska State Economic Development Agency in the coming weeks.
Conservationists and tribal leaders hailed the government’s decision as a historic victory.
Chief Brian Ridley, president of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, representing 42 villages in the interior of Alaska, said the Ambler Road decision “is a monumental step forward in the fight for indigenous rights and environmental justice.”
But Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said the roadblock was “illegal,” and state Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, called it “disappointing.”
Further north, the Interior Department finalized a rule that withdraws 13 million acres of Arctic tundra from future oil and gas drilling. It provides “maximum protections” to more than half of the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, a pristine wilderness on the state’s North Slope, bounded by the Chukchi Sea to the west and the Beaufort Sea to the north.
This decision will not affect the Willow project, the largest new oil field in Alaska in decades, which is expected to produce up to 180,000 barrels per day for the next 30 years.
Republicans said cutting off millions of acres from oil drilling in the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve would weaken national security, lead to higher energy prices and deprive Alaska of billions of dollars in tax revenue.
“The Biden administration is fine with our opponents producing energy and dominating the world’s critical mineral markets while they shut down America’s,” Mr Sullivan said at a news conference on Thursday, alongside the state’s senior senator, Lisa Murkowski , and nine more. Senate Republicans.
Mr. Biden is “destabilizing our security as a nation in a way that most people didn’t think possible,” Ms. Murkowski said. He accused the Biden administration of wanting to “lock up Alaska.”
American oil production is at record levels and the United States is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.
Oil industry leaders have suggested they will challenge the legality of the administration’s actions.
“This misguided rule by the Biden administration severely limits future oil and gas development in the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, an area expressly designated by Congress to enhance America’s energy security while generating significant economic growth and revenue for local Alaskan communities,” said Dustin Meyer. senior vice president for policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s main lobby group, said in a statement.
The rule also widened a rift among Alaska Natives already divided over the future of fossil fuels in the Arctic, a region deeply threatened by climate change and dependent on oil for jobs.
As the planet warms from greenhouse gas emissions linked to oil, natural gas and coal, Alaska is warming at a faster rate than the lower 48 states. That means the state faces more coastal erosion, melting permafrost and sea ice, unstable terrain and more wildfires.
At the same time, about 95 percent of the oil-rich North Slope Borough’s $410 million annual budget comes from local taxes on oil and gas activities. “There is no other economy for our region,” said Doreen Leavitt, director of natural resources for the Inupiat Community of 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 US Navy.
It is the largest single piece of public land in the United States. Despite having “oil” in its name, some of the most valuable fish and wildlife habitat on the Arctic Coastal Plain is found within the refuge.
“It’s so misunderstood by the public,” said Gerrit Vyn, a producer and director of photography at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who has documented migratory birds in the Arctic.
“People think of it as just windswept tundra, but NPR-A is the largest wetland area in the polar Arctic, with the highest density of coastal nesting birds anywhere in the world,” Mr Vyn said.
The areas to be protected under the Interior Department decision include habitat for grizzly and polar 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 interior ministry said the move came in response to concerns from Alaska Native communities have relied on the land, water and wildlife to support their way of life for thousands of years.
Rosemary Ahtuangaruak is a former mayor of Nuiqsut, an Inupiat community of just 550 people and the closest village to the Willow site.
“For too long, oil and gas executives have been prioritized over our voices and the needs of the communities that live here,” Ms. Ahtuangaruak, who now heads an environmental group in Alaska, told a statement.
He added, “The administration must continue to build on these critical protections to protect wildlife habitat and the health of our Alaska Native communities so we can continue to preserve and pass on the traditions and activities of our elders for the next years”.