After 92 Years, Exxon Dropped From Dow Jones

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5. Meanwhile Dolt45's administration opens the Artic wildlife refuge to drilling

Trump administration to approve Arctic wildlife refuge for oil and gas drilling

By Laura Geggel - Associate Editor 11 days ago

The refuge is home to polar bears and 135 species of migratory birds.

The Trump administration announced today (Aug. 17) that it plans to open up part of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a 19 million acre (7.7 million hectares) refuge about the size of South Carolina, to oil and gas leasing — a move that paves the way for drilling in the region, according to news reports.

ANWR has long been a battleground between environmentalists and industry. In 1960, the U.S. government began setting aside land for ANWR, "the only conservation system unit that protects, in an undisturbed condition, a complete spectrum of the Arctic ecosystems in North America," according to a 1987 report.

However, while ANWR is home to Arctic animals such as polar bears, caribou, fish and 135 species of migratory birds, it's also rich in oil and gas. In particular, the so-called 1002 Area, a 1.5-million-acre (607,000 hectares) zone located along the refuge's Arctic Ocean coastline, is thought to hold about 10.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, according to a 1998 report by the U.S. Geological Survey. This makes it the largest onshore oil reserve in North America, The New York Times reported.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt made the announcement today, saying that the government will likely begin leasing parts of ANWR to oil and gas companies within months, according to Arctic Today. "There certainly could be a lease sale by the end of the year," Bernhardt told reporters during a news conference, as reported by Arctic Today, adding that he would "move forward expeditiously."

More: https://www.livescience.com/oil-drilling-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge.html