Trump Administration Completes Oil Drilling Plan in Alaska

Trump Administration Completes Oil Drilling Plan in Alaska

On Monday, the Trump administration completed a plan to allow oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and took decades of lease contracts in the pristine wilderness before a potential change in US leadership. The energy industry and Alaska Governor Michael Dunleavy said that turning the ANWR into drilling would create jobs and boost the state economy that depends on oil production. Democrats, including presidential candidate Joe Biden and environmentalists, criticized the movement as a gift for Great Oil, which would harm the unique ecosystem of the Arctic and its indigenous people. In a conference call with reporters, Minister David Bernhardt said the Home Office could sell oil and gas leases at the ANWR by the end of the year. A tax bill passed by Republicans in 2017 opened the region to oil and gas leasing, a key pillar of US President Donald Trump's agenda to expand fossil fuel production. However, rental sales in the state have been weak for most of the last decade, and state-wide production has fallen steadily over the past 30 years. Bernhardt said that if found, an oil production could begin at the ANWR, which took about 50 years in about eight years.