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United States to provide oil and gas leases in Alaska wildlife haven on Jan. 9

The Biden administration will use oil and gas drilling leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge at a sale on Jan. 9, the U.S. Interior Department said on Monday.

The firm will make 400,000 acres (161,874 hectares). readily available to drillers at the auction, the minimum needed by a. 2017 law that mandated the sale.

ANWR is a 19-million-acre haven for types including polar. bears and Porcupine caribou. The wild landscape does not have roads and. public centers, however its 1.6-million-acre coastal area along. the Beaufort Sea is estimated to have up to 11.8 billion barrels. of recoverable oil.

Alaska's elected officials have sought for years to open. drilling in the reserve to protect tasks and profits for the. state.

The previous administration of President-elect Donald Trump. offered oil and gas leases in ANWR for the first and only time in. 2021, however Biden's Interior Department canceled them in 2023,. citing a problematic ecological analysis.

The Bureau of Land Management, the department of Interior that. will supervise the sale, stated the acreage available will avoid. areas crucial to polar bear denning and caribou calving.

An Alaska-based environmental group stated oil and gas. advancement in ANWR would ruin an important community.

The Arctic Refuge deserves to stay a place of haven, not. a commercial oilfield lining the pockets of big oil. executives, Kristen Miller, executive director of Alaska. Wilderness League, said in a declaration.

(source: Reuters)