So Biden will open a very small amount for drilling and ban drilling on the rest of the oil rich Alaska state . Biden is a fool and does not care about the needs of this country. I wonder if Bidens bans would hold up in court
https://www.theepochtimes.com/biden...utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport
https://www.theepochtimes.com/biden...utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport
The Biden administration has green-lit a scaled-back version of the $8 billion Willow oil field development project, angering climate activists while delighting lawmakers from Alaska who have been battling to secure the project.
On Monday, the Department of the Interior (DOI) announced that it had approved three of the originally proposed five drilling pads by ConocoPhillips for the Willow project set within the 23 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). The company acquired the leases in the late 1990s. ConocoPhillips will also relinquish rights to around 68,000 acres of its existing leases in the NPR-A.
The reduction of two drilling pads and relinquishment of 68,000 acres “reduces the project’s freshwater use and eliminates all infrastructure related to the two rejected drill sites, including approximately 11 miles of roads, 20 miles of pipelines, and 133 acres of gravel, all of which reduces potential impacts to caribou migration and subsistence users,” the DOI said in a press release on Mar. 13.
Abbie Dillen, president of environmental group Earthjustice, slammed the decision. “For all the talk of ‘scaling back,’ this decision green-lights 92 percent of proposed oil drilling and hands over one the most fragile, intact ecosystems in the world to ConocoPhillips. This is not climate leadership,” she said in a tweet on Mar. 13.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass) called the approval of the Willow project an “environmental injustice.” The decision “leaves an oil stain on the administration’s climate accomplishments and the president’s commitment not to permit new oil and gas drilling on federal land,” he said.
In contrast, Republican and Democrat senators from Alaska welcomed the decision. “After years of relentless advocacy, we are now on the cusp of creating thousands of new jobs, generating billions of dollars in new revenues, improving quality of life on the North Slope and across our state,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), according to a press release on Mar. 13.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden will take action to “designate approximately 2.8 million acres in the Arctic Ocean nearshore the NPR-A as indefinitely off limits for future oil and gas leasing,” the DOI said.
In addition, drilling limits have also been proposed for 13 million acres of land within the NPR-A. Since 2007, there hasn’t been a single federal lease sale in the Arctic Ocean.