Trump opens protected Alaskan Arctic refuge to oil drillers
by Emily Holden in Washington from Environment | The Guardian on (#4Q7ZN)
The Bureau of Land Management will offer leases to the 1.6m-acre coastal plain which is home to threatened polar bears
The Trump administration is finalizing plans to allow oil and gas drilling in a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that has been protected for decades.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will offer leases on essentially the entire 1.6m-acre coastal plain, which includes places where threatened polar bears have dens and porcupine caribou visit for calving. Drilling operations are expected to be problematic for Indigenous populations, many of which rely on subsistence hunting and fishing.
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