On day one of Joe Biden’s disastrous presidency, he canceled the Keystone Pipeline. Since then, he’s waged a war on drilling and energy and has tried to shove a green agenda down our throats. It’s one of the many reasons a Democrat won’t be in the White House come January.
On Thursday, he made a strange but somewhat conciliatory speech where he promised a smooth transition of power to President-elect Donald Trump.
Yet it was only hours before he made a move to defy the GOP nominee and former president INCOMING PRESIDENT and further limited drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The plan underscores how the Biden administration is racing to cement its environmental legacy mere hours after Trump secured a second term. Trump has vowed to boost oil drilling in the refuge, as part of broader plans to expand fossil fuel production on public lands across the country.
For nearly four decades, drilling was banned in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, whose 19.3 million acres provide critical habitat for the Southern Beaufort Sea’s remaining polar bears, along with tens of thousands of migrating caribou and waterfowl. But in 2017, Trump signed a tax bill mandating at least two lease sales in the refuge’s 1.6 million-acre coastal plain by the end of 2024.
Mere hours after voters gave Donald Trump an overwhelming mandate to unleash American energy, Joe Biden is moving to shut down oil production and increase energy prices.
Trump should overturn this horrendous decision on day one.https://t.co/MapHKvKJhU
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 7, 2024
Our native Alaskan Ward Clark says that opening the refuge is sure to be a Trump priority:
Finally, here in the Great Land:
Drilling in Alaska refuge
Trump is almost certain to reinstate drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, continuing a partisan battle that has persisted for decades. Biden and other Democratic presidents have blocked drilling in the sprawling refuge, which is home to polar bears, caribou and other wildlife. Trump reinstated the drilling program in a 2017 tax cut law enacted by congressional Republicans. Even so, no drilling has occurred in the refuge.
Related: Well, That Didn’t Take Long: Climate Scolds Panicking Over Trump 47
The amount of oil there could be massive, although no one knows for certain:
USGS estimates there’s somewhere between 4.3 and 11.8 billion barrels of oil in the coastal plain. Those are huge numbers. For comparison, Alaska’s second biggest oil field, Kuparuk, holds about 2.5 billion barrels.
🚨 Biden moves to limit oil drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge shortly after Trump’s victory over Kamala!
They’re going to spend the next 2 months sabotaging an incoming Trump admin to try & cripple his economic recovery & lower inflation. These people hate America! pic.twitter.com/vSwiZYMoJ7
— 🔥🇺🇸 KC 🇺🇸🔥 (@KCPayTreeIt) November 7, 2024
Environmentalists of course cheered Biden’s move, but some locals have not been pleased with the way he’s handled the matter during his administration:
But some Alaska Native groups said the move would hurt the local economy, which is highly dependent on revenue from drilling.
“It seems that once again the people of the North Slope are being told that our voices and lived experience are insufficient, and that federal laws passed by Congress mean little in the eyes of the Biden administration’s Department of the Interior,” North Slope Borough Mayor Josiah Patkotak said in a statement.
Despite all their calls for unity and grace, expect the outgoing administration to make many more moves to undermine and frustrate Trump before he takes office. That’s how they operate.
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