{"id":1454210,"date":"2022-04-26T12:59:37","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T16:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1454210"},"modified":"2022-04-26T12:59:39","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T16:59:39","slug":"biden-cuts-millions-of-acres-from-being-eligible-for-oil-drilling-in-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-cuts-millions-of-acres-from-being-eligible-for-oil-drilling-in-alaska\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Cuts Millions of Acres From Being Eligible for Oil Drilling in Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-cuts-millions-of-acres-from-being-eligible-for-oil-drilling-in-alaska%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1454210&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Biden administration is closing off\u00a0almost half of the 23-million-acre\u00a0National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA) from oil and gas drilling, overturning a\u00a0Trump-era policy that would have allowed\u00a0oil development on more than 80 percent of the reserve.<\/p>\n<p>The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the Department of the Interior, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blm.gov\/press-release\/following-january-announcement-bureau-land-management-issues-record-decision-national\">announced<\/a> the decision on April 25.<\/p>\n<p>It marks a return to\u00a0an Obama administration plan to manage the area\u00a0that would enable the administration to lease up to 52 percent of the reserve\u00a0for oil and gas exploration.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the remaining\u00a0approximately 11 million acres (48 percent)\u2014which includes the majority of lands within \u201cspecial areas\u201d and much of the coastal area of the reserve\u00a0along the Beaufort Sea\u2014will be closed off to\u00a0oil and gas leasing.<\/p>\n<p>The BLM\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blm.gov\/press-release\/blm-provides-update-review-2020-integrated-activity-plan-national-petroleum-reserve\">announced<\/a>\u00a0in January\u00a0that it had selected the Obama administration\u2019s plan as its \u201cpreferred alternative\u201d for further consideration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s decision ensures the NPR-A will be managed consistent with the 2013 IAP, while including certain more protective lease stipulations and operating procedures for threatened and endangered species from the 2020 IAP\/EIS, confirmed through consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service,\u201d BLM said.<\/p>\n<p>BLM said it had\u00a0prepared a \u201cDetermination of National Environmental Policy Act Adequacy (DNA) for this action\u201d and assessed the \u201cassociated subsistence evaluation and biological opinions, determining they remain adequate under NEPA, Section 810 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and Endangered Species Act to support a new decision by the Department.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NPRA is the country\u2019s largest unit of public land and sits on the Alaska North Slope. It is owned by the federal government and managed by the Department of the Interior.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, the area generated more than $56 million\u00a0in oil and gas lease revenue, which is\u00a0authorized under the\u00a0Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976.<\/p>\n<p>It is also home to protected \u201cspecial areas\u201d including Teshekpuk Lake and various wildlife such as\u00a0brown bears, caribou, threatened polar bears, walrus, and endangered beluga whales, among others.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3530801\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2020\/10\/08\/f7f47a13f838e52902bd944de93c07f0-1200x711.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3530801\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2020\/10\/08\/f7f47a13f838e52902bd944de93c07f0-1200x711.jpg\" alt=\"Brown bear\" width=\"640\" height=\"379\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> A brown bear stands in a river hunting for salmon to fatten up before hibernation at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, on Sept. 20, 2020. (Courtesy of U.S. National Park Service\/ Handout via Reuters)<\/figure>\n<p>The Trump administration\u2019s plan, aimed at creating a stronger and more energy-independent nation, would have allowed for\u00a0oil and gas leasing across 18.6 million acres of the NPRA.<\/p>\n<p>However, it also included various safeguards for wildlife and sensitive resources. The former president\u2019s plan was\u00a0challenged by two lawsuits filed in the federal court in Alaska and there was never a lease sale under it.<\/p>\n<p>BLM said the new plan adopted this week\u00a0provides \u201cgreater protections to environmental values and subsistence uses in the NPR-A while still allowing for oil and gas exploration and development consistent with BLM\u2019s management responsibilities under the NPRPA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The decision\u2014which comes amid increasingly volatile global oil prices\u2014was praised by environmental groups on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe previous administration\u2019s move to open more than 82 percent of the reserve to oil and gas leasing failed to address the realities of the climate crisis or impacts to the region\u2019s significant wildlife and wilderness values,\u201d Alaska Wilderness League Conservation Director Kristen Miller said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReturning to the 2013 management plan is the right move in the near term and will restore protections to critical areas like Teshekpuk Lake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But\u00a0Sen. Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican and supporter of expanded leasing, criticized the decision which comes at a time when energy security is low having been further exacerbated by Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUkrainian grandmothers are bravely standing up to tanks, but President [Joe] Biden can\u2019t even bring himself to stand up to the woke left and unleash American energy production,\u201d Sullivan said on Twitter.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-katabella-roberts\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ttl7dayERL_WEB_KatabellaRoberts.jpg\" alt=\"Katabella Roberts\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Katabella Roberts is a reporter currently based in Turkey. She covers news and business for The Epoch Times, focusing primarily on the United States.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Biden administration is closing off\u00a0almost half of the 23-million-acre\u00a0National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA) from oil and gas drilling, overturning a\u00a0Trump-era policy that would have allowed\u00a0oil development on more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1454210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1454210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1454210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1454210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1454210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}