Biden halts oil drilling in Alaska wildlife refuge

US, (Reuters), 2 June 2021 -  U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday said it would suspend oil and gas leases that were handed out in an Alaska wildlife refuge during the final days of the Trump administration pending an environmental review.   

The action reverses one of former President Donald Trump’s signature efforts to expand fossil fuel development in the United States, and delivers a setback to the Alaskan state government which had hoped opening the enormous refuge would help revive its declining oil industry.   

Trump’s Interior Department sold the leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in January over the objections of environmentalists and indigenous groups. During his campaign, Biden had pledged to protect the 19.6 million-acre pristine habitat for polar bears, caribou and migratory birds.   

Biden’s Interior Department said it had notified the leaseholders, which include an Alaska state agency.