The Biden administration on Tuesday suspended oil and gas leases in Alaska's 19.6 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland ordered a new environmental review of the leasing program enacted by the Trump administration.
On Jan. 6, the Bureau of Land Management held a lease sale for the refuge's coastal plain, and about a week later, signed leases for nine tracts totaling almost 685 square miles, The Associated Press reports. On President Biden's first day in office, he signed an executive order placing a temporary moratorium on oil and gas lease activities. Haaland on Tuesday said a review of the Trump administration's leasing program found several issues, including that it lacked "analysis of a reasonable range of alternatives," which is required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
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