Biden administration reduces amount of land for oil and gas drilling in Alaska

April 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has announced that it will reduce the amount of land that can be used for offshore oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Northeast National Petroleum Reserve.

"This decision is informed by more than a decade of engagement with a wide variety of stakeholders," the BLM said in a 91-page document released Monday.

The move follows a decision by the Biden Administration last June that suspended all oil and gas leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It effectively reverses a plan by former President Donald Trump to expand oil drilling in the Arctic.

The BLM, part of the Department of the Interior, will limit fossil fuel extractions in the region to 52% of the petroleum reserve, which spans about 23 million acres. Trump had sought to allow up to 82% of the land for drilling. The Biden Administration decision will remove about 7 million acres of the 19.6 million-acre refuge from development.

The refuge is home to some of the most diverse and spectacular fish and wildlife in the arctic, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website. They include polar bears, caribou, Dall sheep, muskox, salmon-sized Dolly Varden char, and Arctic Grayling. The agency also noted that birds from around the world come to the refuge to breed, feed, and rear their young.

"Conserving these populations and their habitats in their natural diversity is a purpose of the refuge," the agency said.

Meanwhile, the Alaska House of Representatives and Senate have introduced a budget bill that contains $2 million for a special account to be used for lawsuits against the Biden administration. Gov. Mike Dunleavy and a bipartisan group of legislators say the litigation funds are aimed at stopping the federal government's efforts to limit fossil fuel development in the state, which they say results in lost revenues.

In 1923, President Warren Harding set the region aside as an emergency oil reserve for the Navy. It was later transferred to the bureau, which is authorized to sell leases for energy companies to drill.

The Eisenhower administration established Arctic National Wildlife Range in 1960 to preserve unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values.

At the end of President Barack Obama's term in office, he put into place a five-year plan to make future drilling in two key areas of the Arctic illegal.

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