The action reverses one of former Trump's signature efforts to expand fossil fuel development in the United States, and delivers a setback to the Alaskan government which had hoped opening the enormous refuge would help revive its declining oil industry
-U.S. President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday said it would suspend oil and gas leases that were handed out in an Alaska wildlife refuge during the final days of the Trump administration pending an environmental review.
White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said Biden was "grateful for the prompt action by the Department of the Interior," and said the Trump administration's hastily-held auction of oil and gas leases in the refuge "could have changed the character of this special place forever." The ANWR leasing program is already the subject of lawsuits by environmental and indigenous groups that allege the Trump administration violated federal law by performing a faulty environmental analysis that failed to adequately consider its impact on wildlife and native people.
"Our leases for oil and gas are valid and cannot be taken away by the federal government," Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a statement. "I oppose this assault on Alaska's economy and will use every means necessary to undo this egregious federal overreach."
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