Print article The Biden administration is defending a Southwest Alaska land swap that was supported by the Trump administration, which aims to allow construction of an 11-mile road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. Residents in the Alaska Peninsula community of King Cove have long sought the road, arguing it would provide access to emergency care, but conservation groups have sued to stop it, citing the importance of the 310,000-acre refuge to migrating waterfowl and other wildlife. The Department of Justice on Monday filed a legal brief in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals defending a 2019 land exchange between the Interior Department and King Cove’s Alaska Native village corporation. The land exchange would pave the way for the road.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska President Joe Biden’s administration is supporting a controversial road through a national wildlife refuge on the remote Alaska Peninsula that is home to migrating waterfowl, continuing the policy of former President Donald Trump. Advocates argue the 11-mile (18-kilometre) segment within the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge to complete an approximately 30-mile (48-kilometre) road […]
For Immediate Release, January 6, 2021
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Arctic Refuge Oil Lease Sale Compromises Vital Alaska Wilderness
Outgoing Administration Takes Next Step in Rushed Process to Open One of Nation’s Most Iconic, Sacred Landscapes to Oil Drilling
WASHINGTON The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority emerged as the apparent high bidder in the Trump administration s illegal oil and gas lease sale as part of its Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Today s bids disregard the facts: Oil and gas drilling on the Arctic Refuge coastal plain would threaten Indigenous rights, industrialize one of America’s last wild places, threaten imperiled wildlife and exacerbate climate change. $1.8 billion total was promised in the Tax Act; today’s failure of a lease sale generated only $14.4 million, or less than 1% of what was promised.