The Biden administration announced on Wednesday, September 6, to ban any new gas or oil exploitation in a huge area of northernAlaskaprotecting local populations and wildlife, five months after having approved a hydrocarbon project in the same region.
This new measure concerns more than four million hectares, an area comparable to that of the Denmarkwithin the National Petroleum Reserve, a vital natural space for populations of grizzly bears, polar bears, caribou and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds.
“Alaska is home to many of the most beautiful natural wonders in the United States,” the US president said. Joe Biden in a press release. “As the climate crisis heats up theArctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the globe, we have a responsibility to protect these precious regions for centuries to come,” he added.
Permits canceled
The Department of the Interior, in charge of federal lands in the United States, added that it had canceled seven operating permits authorized under the president Donald Trump in another protected area in northern Alaska.
The government of the Democratic president had been widely criticized by environmental activists after its decision in March to authorize a vast oil project by the American giant ConocoPhillips in this same national oil reserve. The decision announced Wednesday does not call into question this project, called Willow.
Reduced to three drilling zones against the five initially requested by the company, it will cost between 8 and 10 billion dollars and will result in a total of the indirect emission of the equivalent of 239 million tonnes of CO2. Environmental associations had denounced a disaster for the climate, and some see Wednesday’s announcement as a catch-up on the part of the Biden administration.
Untenable promises
The new plan announced Wednesday also prohibits drilling in an area of more than one million hectares in the Beaufort Sea, located north of the northern coast of Alaska, and aid for local indigenous populations.
These measures “are illegal, reckless, defy common sense and are the latest evidence of the inconsistency of President Biden’s energy policy”, reacted Republican Senator from Alaska Lisa Murkowski in a press release, denouncing a lack of consultation with the Aboriginal communities concerned.
Joe Biden had promised during his campaign for the presidency a freeze on oil exploitation permits, a promise not kept. Observers point out that court decisions have limited its room for maneuver in this case. The Democratic president also passed a huge $400 billion climate investment plan last year.
For its part, the Carbon Tracker think tank estimated, in a report published Thursday, that the world’s major oil and gas companies are far from agreeing to the efforts necessary to limit global warming, and have sometimes rolled back their commitments. “Progress by oil and gas companies to strengthen their emissions commitments has stalled, with most remaining in the same range as last year,” the report said.
With AFP
2023-09-07 01:28:31
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