Oil drilling in a nature reserve? If the US government has its way, the first drilling licenses for Northeast Alaska will be auctioned later this year. Environmentalists and indigenous people are attacking the plans and sue.
After the US government set the course for the production of oil and natural gas in an arctic nature reserve in Alaska, environmentalists and indigenous people are taking it to court. Several organizations filed lawsuits against Interior Minister David Bernhardt and the Land Administration Bureau, among others. They argue that the drilling rights auctioning plans published last week violate various conservation laws.
The exploitation of the deposits was decided along with the 2017 tax reform by the then Republican-ruled Congress. The US Department of the Interior was then commissioned to set the framework for this.
According to this, drilling should be permitted in up to eight percent of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. After presenting the plans, Bernhardt said that he expected the auction of the first drilling rights at the end of the year.
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