President Biden today issued a Presidential Memorandum indefinitely withdrawing ~2.8 million acres of the Beaufort Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing. As justification for the withdrawal, the memorandum cited due consideration of the “irreplaceable marine and coastal environments,” “vulnerability of the ecosystems and coastal communities to oil spills, and “the national need to curtail, mitigate, build resilience against, and adapt to the devastating and irreversible consequences of climate change…”
The decision was made in conjunction with the Interior Department’s Record of Decision allowing the development of existing leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. DOI noted that the Beaufort Sea oil and natural gas leasing withdrawal would provide additional protection for Teshekpuk Lake by “guarding against the potential that future Beaufort Sea oil and gas developments would seek to build pipeline infrastructure into the NPR-A.”
