by Kevin Killough
Last Friday, the Department of the Interior blocked 28 million acres of federal land in Alaska from all mining, oil and gas and quarrying activities.
Rick Whitbeck, Alaska State Director of Power the futuresaid the D-1 decision deprives an area the size of Pennsylvania of the opportunity to develop natural resources, which will have solemn implications for the nation’s energy sector and the state of Alaska.
“Today’s dual attack on resource development opportunities in Alaska makes it 65 times the Biden administration has taken aim at our state’s energy and economic future. This administration has completely pandered to radical environmentalists in an attempt to curry favor with voters. Putting 28 million acres beyond the reach of responsible development is reckless and only strengthens China, Russia, and other enemies of our Republic,” Whitbeck said Only news.
In a separate decision, the department also blocked a 211-mile gravel road that would connect mining districts in west-central Alaska to a highway that runs through the middle of the state. The mines are prosperous in copper and cobalt necessary for the so-called green energy transformation.
Former President Donald Trump approved a permit for the road in 2020, but after Joe Biden was elected, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland commissions recent analysisarguing that research conducted in the Trump era was insufficient.
Alaska’s congressional delegation has bipartisan support for the bill. In December, Republican senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, along with Democratic state representative Mary Sattler Peltola, sent a letter to Haaland (pictured above) calling for a quick review and re-approval of the road project.
Alaska lawmakers argued that Alaska and the country needed the jobs, revenue and minerals that the road would provide access to. Those minerals, lawmakers explained, would also make America less dependent on foreign countries with impoverished human rights records.
“Rejecting the AAP or approving it in an unworkable manner would deprive us of these benefits, prolong our deep dependence on foreign minerals, and exacerbate the dangers and atrocities associated with it,” the Alaska delegation wrote.
The delegation also explained that Congress mandated construction of the road under the Alaska National Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980.
“Ignoring the fact that Congress has mandated access to the Ambler Mining District is a brazen abuse of executive authority,” Whitbeck said.
In his formal record of decisionThe Bureau of Land Management (BLM) selected a “no action” alternative that prohibits construction of the road on public lands.
BLM also chose the “no action” alternative in its final environmental impact statement regarding the D-1 lands in Alaska. It will prevent any future oil, gas, and mining activities on 28 million acres scattered throughout Alaska.
Josie Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which advocated for the road, he said Bloomberg Law that the group will be taking legal action over the decision.
IN Energy and Natural Resources Committee Hearing In May, Murkowski sharply criticized Secretary of State Deb Haaland for the Biden administration’s intention to close Ambler Road, arguing that there was “no good explanation” for the department’s decision.
“The administration here has effectively reduced Alaska to nothing more than a debit card to pay domestic environmental groups in an election year… We’re imposing sanctions on Alaska while we’re increasing resources overseas. And you’re paying no attention, ignoring the pollution, the human rights abuses, the regimes that enable it, from Russia to Iran,” Murkowski said.
– – –
Kevin Killough is a reporter for Just the News.
