Alaska lawmakers respond to drilling suspension

Lawmakers representing Alaska said June 2 they were frustrated that president Joe Biden was undoing the sanctioned oil and gas activity in the state embraced by his predecessor.

Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan were joined by representative Don Young and governor Mike Dunleavy, all Republicans, in expressing opposition to a federal decision to suspend oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

“The Biden administration’s actions are not unexpected but are outrageous nonetheless,” Murkowski said.

In one of his first acts after taking the oath of office in January, Biden put a pause on new drilling activity on federal lands and rejoined the Paris climate deal, setting the US on the energy transition pathway.

Murkowski, a moderate Republican, said the federal decision to suspend the leases was in direct conflict with 2017 legislation signed by former president Donald Trump that called for drilling in Alaska.

“The oil and gas leasing program established by the Trump administration meets the legal mandates required by Congress including imposing a framework with a range of environmental safeguards that are successfully guiding production elsewhere in northern Alaska,” Murkowski said. “This action serves no purpose other than to obstruct Alaska’s economy and put our energy security at great risk.”

The Interior Department suspended activities pending a comprehensive environmental review.

“The department is notifying lessees that it is suspending oil and gas leases in the Arctic Refuge, pending the review, to determine whether the leases should be reaffirmed, voided, or subject to additional mitigation measures,” a June 1 statement read.

In 2018, during the Trump presidency, the US Energy Information Administration estimated ANWR, located on the northern coats of Alaska, holds an estimated 10.4bn barrels of oil.

“Much uncertainty surrounds any projection of production from ANWR,” EIA’s report read. “The only well drilled in the coastal plain was completed in 1986, and the results have remained confidential.”