The cancellation will affect Alaska’s state-owned oil development agency, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which bought the leases covering about 365,000 acres on ANWR’s Coastal Plain during the Trump administration. Haaland suspended the leases in June 2021, and some major oil companies, including Chevron, canceled their leases in the area the following year. However, the 2017 tax law mandates leasing in ANWR, meaning the Biden administration will have to launch a new leasing process and hold another lease sale by the end of 2024, albeit likely with tighter environmental provisions. “We intend to comply with the law,” a senior Biden administration official said, adding they didn’t have a timeline for an additional lease sale apart from the law’s deadline of holding one by December 2024. The Biden administration’s move on Wednesday was cheered by environmental groups and some Democrats in Congress.

Source: CNN September 07, 2023 11:28 UTC