Biden has suspended the Arctic drilling rights he sold in the last few days as president

The Biden administration has announced that it will cancel Arctic oil drilling rights It was sold in the last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, overturning the previous White House’s signature policy and giving environmentalists victory.

On his first day as president, Joe Biden addressed the Department of the Interior to review oil and gas activity at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest untouched desert areas in the United States. On Tuesday, the department said the licenses would be suspended pending an environmental and legal review.

The National Environmental Policy Act, a law that has been a marker of environmental standards for decades, calls for “identifying errors in the underlying register of decisions that protect leases, failing to examine a range of reasonable alternatives.”

The decision prevents the development of any of the leases until the revision – which is an additional condition or one that can be completely abolished – is carried out. The department did not say how long this would take.

Gina McCarthy, the White House’s national climate adviser, said the move is an “important step forward” in fulfilling Biden’s commitment to campaigning to protect the shelter. “President Biden believes that America’s national treasures are the cultural and economic foundations of our country and appreciates the swift action of the Department of the Interior,” he said.

To address four years of inactivity on climate change, the president has introduced several measures to restore America’s leadership in environmental issues. These include joining the Paris climate agreement and revoking the permit for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, announcing plans halve greenhouse gas emissionsBy 2030 and integrating climate risk into the financial system.

The Biden administration has also frozen new oil and gas leases in the federal territories when environmental regulations and restrictions on energy producers were pushed back from the Trump era.

Oil companies and Republicans have long sought to exploit the oil-rich ANWR, a 19-acre area of ​​land inhabited by endangered polar bears, caribou and other wildlife, and considered sacred by Gwich’in indigenous communities.

Auctions of the shelter portion – about 1.5 m across the coast – were ordered under a 2017 law. Trump wanted to speed up the process by leasing contracts in his last days as part of a benchmark plan to boost higher fossil fuel production in the U.S.

But the sale in January, it created little interest in the industry, just three bidders, including an Alaska state agency, submitted bids.

Local officials have objected to Biden’s behavior, saying it is a major blow to the region’s economy and Alaska’s highly dependent industry.

“Our leases of oil and gas are valid and cannot be taken away by the federal government,” said Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. “I am against this attack on the Alaska economy and will use all necessary means to dismantle this excessive federal reach.”

The decision on Tuesday brought victory to environmentalists and activists, who have been a pillar of Biden’s support in last year’s election, as they began impatiently with some of the White House’s climate action. The administration recently failed to intervene to force the closure of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline and sided with a major Alaska oil project approved during Trump’s tenure.

“Overall, the Biden administration is acting forcefully in the face of climate change,” said Michael Gerrard, founder of Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. “This action by ANWR is quite consistent with that. It doesn’t seem like the actions of the other two projects are so consistent.”

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