The Biden administration finalized major restrictions on 28 million acres of Alaskan land on Tuesday.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) announced that it is retaining protections from mining and drilling on the 28 million acres, reversing the Trump administration’s moves to end those protections and allow for mining and oil and gas development. The Biden DOI said that their predecessors did not sufficiently analyze the effects of removing those protections and did not appropriately communicate with tribal stakeholders.
Native American Group Slams Biden Admin’s Move To Limit New Oil Projects In Alaska https://t.co/TKbExoHI9Q
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“Tribal consultation must be treated as a requirement – not an option – when the federal government is making decisions that could irrevocably affect Tribal communities. I am grateful to the team at the Bureau of Land Management for taking the time to ensure that we approached this decision with the benefit of feedback from Alaska Native communities, and to the Tribal leaders who shared with us the impact that a potential revocation of the withdrawals would have on their people,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said of her agency’s Tuesday announcement. “Continuing these essential protections, which have been in place for decades, will ensure continued access and use of these public lands now and in the future.”
Tuesday’s actions are the latest by the Biden administration to crack down on productive extraction of natural resources in the state, which has been subject to more than 50 executive actions from the administration, according to the office of Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. The administration has effectively killed the state’s Pebble Mine project, restricted leasing on 13 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) and retroactively canceled seven previously-issued oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Major environmental groups, including Earthjustice and the Sierra Club, applauded the DOI’s decision to reverse the Trump administration’s moves and protect the 28 million acres, hailing it as a major victory.
The DOI did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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