Washington — Today in a release the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced “it has selected Alternative A (the ‘No Action’ alternative) from the 2020 Integrated Activity Plan Environmental Impact Statement (IAP/EIS) as its ‘preferred alternative’ for further consideration. If confirmed in a new record of decision (ROD), this preferred alternative would revert management of the NPR-A to the 2013 IAP, while including certain more protective lease stipulations and operating procedures for threatened and endangered species from the 2020 IAP. This decision reflects the Biden-Harris administration’s priority of reviewing existing oil and gas programs to ensure balance on America’s public lands and waters to benefit current and future generations.”

“Under the previous administration, BLM’s expedited planning process violated bedrock environmental laws put in place to provide important protections for the Western Arctic. It faced clear public opposition and threatened local communities with the diminishment of traditional hunting areas, wildlife displacement, and worsening air quality from oil and gas development. Returning to the 2013 management plan is the right move and will restore protections to the Reserve’s critical Special Areas, in particular Teshekpuk Lake. Now, especially as it prepares to take public comment on its ‘America the Beautiful’ initiative, we hope the administration recognizes the potential for America’s largest single piece of public land to provide landscape-level protection of ecosystems and sustain healthy and diverse wildlife and habitat for the future.”

  Alaska, Arctic, biden, national petroleum reserve, npr-a, trump