Trump officials rush to auction off rights to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before Biden can.. [View all]
Source: Washington Post
Trump officials rush to auction off rights to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before Biden can block it
Officials aim to sell drilling rights to iconic wilderness’ coastal plain before Joe Biden takes office
By Juliet Eilperin
November 16, 2020 at 11:14 a.m. EST
The Trump administration has called for oil and gas firms to pick spots where they’d like to drill on Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as it races to open the pristine wilderness to development and lock in drilling rights before president-elect Joe Biden takes office.
The “call for nominations” to be published Tuesday allows companies to identify tracts they’d like to bid on during an upcoming lease sale on the refuge’s nearly 1.6-million acre coastal plain, which the Interior Department aims to hold before Biden takes the oath of office in January. The move would be a capstone of President Trump’s efforts to open up public lands to logging, mining and grazing — something Biden strongly opposes.
Trump's rolled back more than 125 environmental policies. Another 40 rollbacks are underway.
A GOP-controlled Congress in 2017 authorized drilling on the refuge, a vast wilderness home to tens of thousands of migrating caribou and waterfowl, along with polar bears and Arctic foxes.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/11/16/arctic-refuge-drilling-trump/
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