The U.S. Department of the Interior is being criticized for announcing that it will suspend all oil and gas leases for portions of the non-wilderness Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, pending the outcome of another environmental review. The leases were issued in January pursuant to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which authorized responsible energy development in ANWR.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy rips the president’s decision on Fox News:
ANWR spans 19.3 million acres, an area of land roughly equal in size to South Carolina, in northeast Alaska. in 1980, Congress designated more than eight million acres within ANWR as federal wilderness as part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. That same legislation set aside the 1.57-milllion acre Coastal Plain for petroleum exploration and potential future development, which is supported by a majority of Alaskans.
