Environmental groups are calling on Congress to repeal an oil and gas program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as industry backers also criticize the Biden administration’s plan to hold an oil lease sale there in the coming months.
The Interior Department released a final environmental review Wednesday for a congressionally mandated sale in the refuge, suggesting the administration will open roughly 400,000 acres to potential drillers — the minimum acreage required. There will be protections to limit seismic testing and oil infrastructure.
The date of the sale has not been released, but Congress is not expected to thwart the sale.
Critics of ANWR drilling that have lobbied the Biden administration for several years to block drilling in the refuge refrained from directly blaming President Joe Biden for the sale Wednesday, just hours after Democrats lost the presidential election to former President Donald Trump, a supporter of Arctic drilling. They blamed Congress instead for mandating the Arctic oil program and credited the Biden administration for stiffening environmental protections for a forthcoming sale.
