The Biden administration will suspend controversial leases issued under the previous administration for drilling at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), it announced Tuesday.
Under Secretarial Order 3401, the department is directed to begin a “comprehensive environmental analysis to review the potential impacts of the Program and to address legal deficiencies in the current leasing program’s environmental review under NEPA.”
In signing the order, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said that a departmental review found “multiple legal deficiencies” in the record supporting the leases, and the department is notifying lessees that it is suspending oil and gas leases in the Arctic Refuge, pending the review.
According to The Hill, two of the deficiencies noted in the record included insufficient environmental analysis and a “failure to adequately analyze a reasonable range of alternatives.”
And in another prior environmental review, there was “a failure to properly interpret the law authorizing the lease sales.”
In a separate statement, National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said: “President Biden believes America’s national treasures are cultural and economic cornerstones of our country and he is grateful for the prompt action by the Department of the Interior to suspend all leasing pending a review of decisions made in the last administration’s final days that could have changed the character of this special place forever.”
The news of the suspensions of oil and gas leases in the ANWR was met with cheers from Alaskan Green Groups as well as environmental activists.
