Biden Will Not Give New Hydrocarbon Areas in Alaska
In the national park in Alaska, it will no longer be allowed to extract oil and gas, as well as metals, but this does not apply to the scandalous ConocoPhillips project.
The US President issued a decree according to which the lease of new hydrocarbon areas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge national park in Alaska, the subsoil of which is also allocated to the country’s National Petroleum Reserve, will be limited. 40% of the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve is prohibited – it is prohibited to drill and produce in those lands. The decision not to develop hydrocarbons in this part of Alaska relates to a long-standing debate about whether it makes sense to develop the Arctic state, writes Market Watch.
However, the controversial ConocoPhillips oil production project worth $8 billion and covering an area of about a hectare called Willow, which environmentalists and Alaska natives fought against. But the project received approval that year.
Let us recall that in the fall of 2023, Joe Biden reversed the decision of the previous American leader Donald Trump, which allowed the development of the reserves of the specified Arctic national reserve. We are talking about the northern part of Alaska, where a large number of representatives of the northern animal world also live. And environmentalists constantly appeal to the fact that mineral development will cause damage to the unique nature of Alaska.
Meanwhile, oil and gas companies and local authorities, calling for opening the state to hydrocarbon production, emphasize that this will provide opportunities for economic development and provide new jobs.
