The administration of United States President Joe Biden has announced that it will cancel a number of oil and gas leases in a federal wildlife refuge previously issued under former President Donald Trump.
In a press release on Wednesday, the Department of the Interior (DOI) authorised the cancellation of seven such leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the state of Alaska.
The leases were issued to the state’s development agency in the closing days of the Trump administration but have been suspended since June 2021, citing “legal deficiencies”.
“With climate change warming the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet, we must do everything within our control to meet the highest standards of care to protect this fragile ecosystem,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in Wednesday’s press release.
The move is the latest effort by the Biden administration to make good on promises to shield more public lands from oil and gas development and combat climate change, which has contributed to increases in extreme weather events around the world.
Link from www.aljazeera.com