President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on expanding drilling for “liquid gold,” oil and natural gas, across the country, but the Biden administration is working to tie his hands when it comes to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act that Congress passed and Trump signed mandated at least two lease sales in the refuge’s 1.6 million-acre coastal plain by the end of 2024, the first of which was auctioned by the Interior Department two weeks before he left office. But the Biden administration reportedly canceled that sale, claiming the Interior Department had done an insufficient analysis of the environmental impact to the region.
On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported a final environmental impact statement released by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) outlining a preferred alternative that calls for offering 400,000 acres — the minimum required by the 2017 law — in the northwest portion of the coastal plain.
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