The Biden administration announced two major wins for the far-left environmentalists last Friday: it will block new oil and gas leasing on 13 million acres in Alaska’s federal petroleum reserve to protect local wildlife caribou and polar bears, and it will stop development on an access road for mining companies that was previously approved by the Trump administration.
Biden announced the government is blocking the development of the “Ambler Road,” a 211-mile access road that would have given mining companies the ability to access leased land for mineral development.
The far-left environmentalist group the Sierra Club called the decision a “major victory.”
Photo of a polar bear by Hans-Jurgen Mager on Unsplash
This Biden decision bans oil and gas drilling in nearly half of the Alaska petroleum reserve. The reserve is 23 million acres of public land for a national emergency oil supply originally intended for the US Navy, created in the early 1920s.
Even though pump prices have remained high for most Americans, and the high prices affect the working poor the most, Biden has been regularly canceling and terminating energy development leases, as he did several times in 2023.
Alaska’s entire Congressional delegation criticized the decisions last week.
“Closing off NPR-A is a huge step back for Alaska, failing to strike a balance between the need for gap oil and natural gas and legitimate environmental concerns, and steamrolling the voices of many Alaska Natives in the decision-making process,” Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, said in a joint statement issued by the three-member delegation. “The Ambler Road decision is premature, as real conversations among stakeholders in the region are ongoing. Alaska has a wealth of natural resources that can be responsibly developed to help boost domestic manufacturing and innovation — in the end, it should be up to Alaskans to decide what they want developed in their regions.”
This comes on the heels of the news that U.S. crude oil prices have risen 15% year to date due to stronger demand, tighter supplies due to OPEC+ production cuts, and mounting political risks in the Mideast and Eastern Europe.
The size of the land Biden blocked from development, 13 million acres, or 20,000 square miles, is a little smaller than the footprint of West Virginia.
The primary energy development in the area is the ConocoPhillips-owned Willow project. ConocoPhillips’ two largest stakeholders are the Vanguard Group and the controversial BlackRock investment group, who each own about 9% of the firm. The ConocoPhillips project is scheduled to open in 2029, it will now not have any competitors.
According to ConocoPhillips, the Willow project will create $8-17 billion more in federal tax revenues, thousands of jobs, and produce 600 million barrels of oil over the project’s lifetime. The price of a barrel of oil is roughly $87, so the total value of the project would be $52.2 billion.
John Podesta, senior adviser to the president for international climate policy, said the pair of decisions would conserve Alaska lands for generations.
John Podesta, advisor to Joe Biden, known fan of Italian cuisine
“The Biden-Harris administration has now protected more than 41 million acres of lands and waters across the country, leaving a huge mark on the history of American conservation,” Podesta said in a statement.
Elsewhere, Biden’s administration promised the public that they would take all steps necessary to keep gas prices low.
Alaska Natives criticize the drilling ban in the Western Arctic as it impacts a significant portion of the NPR-A land. Nearly all Alaskan citizens typically receive an annual check for their share of state dividends from energy proceeds, a program known as the “Permanent Fund Dividend.” Last year the checks were for $1,312.
The decision aims to protect animal species from so-called “global warming” affecting the Arctic. Elites are obsessed with ‘saving’ the Arctic, even though their predictions about ice melt, extinction, rising sea levels, never come true.
To control prices during the outset of the Russia-Ukraine war, Biden sold half of America’s ‘Strategic Petroleum Reserve’ and has struggled to refill it due to rising gas prices.
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