US President Joe Biden suspends drilling leases in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The decision effectively halts any plans to drill in one of the largest tracts of untouched wilderness in the US

The Biden administration on Tuesday said it would suspend oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that were issued in the waning days of the Trump presidency.

The decision effectively halts any plans to drill in one of the largest tracts of untouched wilderness in the United States, delicate tundra that is home to migrating waterfowl, caribou and polar bears. Democrats and Republicans have fought over whether to allow oil and gas drilling there for more than four decades, and issuing the leases was a signature achievement of the Trump White House.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Tuesday published a secretarial order formally suspending the leases until the agency has completed an environmental analysis of their impact and a legal review of the Trump administration’s decision to grant them.

While the move was widely expected and follows President Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day executive order to halt new Arctic drilling, it serves as a high-profile way for the president to solidify his environmental credentials after coming under fire from activists upset by his recent quiet support for some fossil fuel projects.

“President Biden believes America’s national treasures are cultural and economic cornerstones of our country,” said Gina McCarthy, the White House domestic climate policy adviser.

Arctic tribal leaders who have protested oil drilling praised the move.

“I want to thank President Biden and the Interior Department for recognizing the wrongs committed against our people by the last administration, and for putting us on the right path forward,” Tonya Garnett, special projects coordinator for the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, said in a statement.

The refuge had long been off limits to oil and gas development, with Democrats, environmentalists and some Alaska Native groups successfully fighting efforts to open it.

President Donald Trump made opening part of the refuge a centerpiece of his program for developing more domestic fossil fuel production. In 2017, the Republican-controlled Congress included language in a tax bill establishing a leasing program.

There had been little interest in the leases, at least publicly, from major oil companies.