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Climate and Environment

Biden administration suspends oil and gas leases in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland orders new environmental review of the leasing program, saying the Trump administration did an ‘insufficient analysis’ of drilling’s impact

By
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June 1, 2021 at 2:46 p.m. EDT
A polar bear and her young stand along the Beaufort Sea coast in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2007. (Susanne Miller/USFWS/Reuters)

The Biden administration on Tuesday suspended oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, targeting one of President Donald Trump’s most significant environmental acts during his last days in office.

The move by the Interior Department, which could spark a major legal battle, dims the prospect of oil drilling in a pristine and politically charged expanse of Alaskan wilderness that Republicans and Democrats have fought over for four decades. The Trump administration auctioned off the right to drill in the refuge’s coastal plain — home to hundreds of thousands of migrating caribou and waterfowl as well as the southern Beaufort Sea’s remaining polar bears — just two weeks before President Biden was inaugurated.