White House moves to protect Alaskan land

The Biden administration blocked a major roadway project in the northwest state of Alaska and advanced protections for swaths of Alaskan land from being exploited for natural resources, it announced Friday.

The decision will conserve 28 million acres (11 million hectares) in western Alaska from oil, gas and mining projects, protections the Trump administration had previously tried to withdraw.

It also marks the end of the Ambler Highway project, a 211-mile (339 kilometers) roadway that would have led to mineral-rich mining areas, especially copper.

"These natural wonders demand our protection," President Joe Biden said on X.

The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees federal land as part of the interior department, issued an analysis Friday which determined that "revoking the protections would likely harm subsistence hunting and fishing in communities that would lose federal subsistence priority over some lands."

The move "could have lasting negative impacts on wildlife, vegetation and permafrost," the agency said in a news release.

The interior department also determined the Ambler Road project would have required constructing over 3,000 stream crossings, which would have impacted endangered wildlife and caused "irreparable impacts to permafrost," wrecking permanent damage to the ecosystem.

The analysis will be used by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, whose stamp of approval is required to finalize protections.

The decision "is due in large part to the fearless and outspoken Alaskans who took a stand for their homeland, their food, and their families," said Theresa Pierno, chief executive of the National Parks Conservation Association, an environmental group that worked to oppose the Ambler Road construction project.

The protective measures follow a similar ban implemented by the Biden administration in April that blocked new oil and gas projects from developing in another 13 million acres (5.3 million hectares) of northwest Alaska.

However, in 2023 the Biden administration approved a major oil project in Alaska, dubbed the Willow Project by US oil company ConocoPhillips, drawing the ire of environmentalist groups.