There will be limits on new oil and gas leases on many acres of government oil and gas land in Alaska, the Biden Administration said. They say this because they want to protect wildlife because climate change is putting animals in danger.
This is part of a choice and plan that has been made over many years to help figure out how they will develop the state’s oil resources. Biden just recently announced rules that would make it harder to lease land and build factories in places where there is special wildlife, like polar bears and reindeer.
The agency said that climate change and the warming of the world could have a big impact on wildlife, especially since permafrost is melting and other things are changing.
This made environmentalists happy because they thought it put the climate first. Biden also put out a rule that would make oil drilling, grazing, and other extractive businesses on government land more environmentally friendly. This was part of his push to stay green. That doesn’t mean that any of the current deals or projects that are allowed to happen there would change.
A lot of Alaskan government leaders have said that this law is “illegal” and that the Biden administration shouldn’t have been able to make the decision they did. Lisa Murkowski, the senior senator for Alaska, said, “It’s more than a one-two punch to Alaska. This is energy insecurity: when you cut off access to our resources when you say you can’t drill, create, explore, or move it, that’s “energy insecurity.”
Alaskan officials have said in the past that the Biden Administration was limiting their state and resources by putting these kinds of limits on the oil and gas business and other industries.
