Trump admin finalized plans Monday to auction off the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

[bigtree]

Link to tweet

The Trump administration finalized plans Monday to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, a move that will auction off oil and gas rights in the heart of one of the nation’s most iconic wild places.

The move will allow leasing on the 1.6 million-acre coastal plain, the center of a nearly pristine wilderness home to migrating caribou and waterfowl as well as polar bears and foxes that live there year-round. It marks a major step toward reviving fossil fuel development in an area that has been untouched for three decades.

In a statement, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said that his department was following through on the 2017 budget bill that instructed the federal government to conduct oil and gas leasing on the refuge.

In issuing a “record of decision,” officials at the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management concluded that establishing a network of well pads and pipelines would not pose an undue threat to the wildlife that depend on the refuge for survival. The draft plan called for the construction of as many as four airstrips and well pads, 175 miles of roads, vertical supports for pipelines, a seawater-treatment plant and a barge landing and storage site...

read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/08/17/trump-drilling-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-alaska/

Here's the other remote patch of Alaskan wilderness where the administration plans to expand drilling
https://wapo.st/37nMXAh

[SheltieLover]

1. Nooooooo!

[FM123]

2. Oh no! This is going to be gift wrapped to Putin.

The Kremlin’s growing assertiveness is aimed to position Russia as the dominant power in the Arctic with an eye on untapped offshore oil and gas reserves, which are becoming more accessible because of warming temperatures, retreating polar ice and rising sea-levels, say Western analysts.

https://www.voanews.com/europe/russia-ups-ante-arctic

[Turbineguy]

3. Anybody who bids on this

has to know that they are going to get a lot of problems unless trump can steal the next 2 elections at least.