President Joe Biden passed several climate-related executive orders on his first day in office earlier this week. Among those is an order reinstating the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area, an Obama-era executive order that includes protections from off-shore oil and gas leasing in the Norton Sound as well as waters around St. Lawrence Island.
The original order was revoked in the early months of President Donald Trump’s presidency.
The reinstated order outlines policies on marine shipping, pollution, marine debris, and oil spills among other Arctic marine-related issues. The entire “resilience area” stretches over 112,300 square miles from the Kuskokwim Bay to the southern border of the Chukchi Sea.
22 January 2021 12:58 GMT Updated 27 January 2021 10:21 GMT in London
US President Joe Biden has issued an executive order to halt plans for oil and gas exploration in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
The order places “a temporary moratorium on all activities of the Federal Government relating to the implementation of the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program” and requires the Interior Department to conduct a fresh review.
ENERGY EXPLORED: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCELERATE
Gain valuable insight into the global oil and gas industry s energy transition from
ACCELERATE, the free weekly newsletter from Upstream and Recharge.
The order also reinstated an Obama-era policy that had shut most federal offshore waters in the US Arctic and Northern Bering Sea to oil and gas exploration and restored the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area, reported ArcticToday.