The Interior Department issued a new regulation Friday that will affect 13 million acres in Alaska, banning oil drilling on those lands.
The Alaska National Petroleum Reserve Management and Protection Rule will affect 40% of the Alaska Reserve, as 10.6 million acres will be fully protected by the Bureau of Land Management while the remaining amount will benefit from limited protection. According to the Department of the Interior, this area constitutes “globally significant intact habitat for wildlife, including grizzly and polar bears, caribou, and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds.”
President Joe Biden expressed his satisfaction with the regulations in a statement Friday, saying he was “proud” of the conservation effort.
“From saving sacred lands near the Grand Canyon to protecting Alaska’s treasures, my administration has conserved more than 41 million acres of lands and waters,” Biden’s statement read. “But as the climate crisis imperils communities across the country, more must 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.
“There is no doubt, using the best available science and incorporating indigenous knowledge practiced over millennia, that these decisions will contribute to biological, cultural, historical and subsistence resources, thereby safeguarding the way of life of indigenous peoples who have called this special place home since time immemorial,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.
Additionally, the Bureau of Land Management issued its own ruling on a roughly 211-mile-long route in north-central Alaska to establish the Ambler Mining District. This road, which would result in the extraction of copper, zinc, cobalt and other minerals, could, according to the ministry, “have an irrevocable impact on resources, including those that support important subsistence uses, ‘a manner which cannot be adequately mitigated’.
“We are deeply disappointed by the Bureau of Land Management’s politically motivated decision to block construction of the Ambler Access project,” Ambler Metals CEO Kaleb Froehlich said in a statement. “In doing so, the Department of the Interior is depriving Alaska Native communities of thousands of good-paying jobs and millions of dollars in badly needed tax revenue and economic investment, while preventing the United States from United to develop a national supply of minerals that are essential for clean energy technology and national security.
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Amber Metals cited support from Allakaket Tribal Council First Chief PJ Simon and area MP Miles Cleveland.
Alaska’s North Slope contains six of the 100 largest oil fields in the United States. The state was the sixth largest oil producer last year, producing 426,000 barrels per day.