1.5 Million Acres of Alaskan Wildlife Refuge to Open for Drilling

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By Emily Gardner, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: A large swath of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) will soon open for drilling, the Trump administration announced today. ...The news is the latest in a saga involving the ANWR, which in total spans 19.6 million acres. The 1.5 million acres to be opened for drilling represent the coastal plain of the refuge. ...Trump first opened the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain region for drilling in 2020, but the sale of drilling leases in early 2021 generated just $14.4 million in bids, rather than the $1.8 billion his administration had estimated. ...Erik Grafe, an attorney for the environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice, in a statement... “The Gwich’in people, most Americans, and even major banks and insurance companies know the Arctic Refuge is no place to drill.” In contrast, Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE), a nonprofit dedicated “to preserving and advancing North Slope Iñupiat cultural and economic self-determination,” released a statement on Thursday in favor of the policy shift. “Developing ANWR’s Coastal Plain is vital for Kaktovik’s future,” said Nathan Gordon, Jr., mayor of Kaktovik, an Iñupiat village on the northern edge of ANWR. “Taxation of development infrastructure in our region funds essential services across the North Slope, including water and sewer systems to clinics, roads, and first responders.... 

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