(CN) — As part of the contentious budget reconciliation package led by President Joe Biden, the U.S. House Rules Committee advanced language Thursday that aims to repeal a Trump-era oil drilling program in the Alaskan wilderness.
Resolution 5376, also called the Build Back Better Act, moved forward among House Democrats on Thursday with new language that could cancel the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas program initiated by former President Donald Trump.
“The Build Back Better language released today is a historic investment in America’s climate and clean energy future. And critically, we’re grateful that it imposes some much-needed fiscal common sense and overdue action to reverse the fire sale of the crown jewel of our National Wildlife Refuge System,” said Kristen Miller, acting executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, in a statement following the decision.
In addition to preventing the federal government from selling Alaska’s wild land to oil and gas companies, the latest version of the resolution calls for the cancellation of all existing leases in the area if they were obtained under the Trump administration’s program.
“Congress needs to get this done now,” Miller said on Thursday.
Polar bears, caribou and snowy owls are among the creatures that call the 19.6 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge home.
But, Trump used a law enacted by Congress in 2017 to OK an oil and gas drilling program in the remote area.
As hundreds of the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the Trump administration held the first lease sale for tracts on the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain of the refuge.
According to the Alaska Wilderness League, the sale generated only $12 million — less than 1% of the sale’s projected revenue.
“Laughable,” is how Miller described the Trump administration’s promise that the sale would garner billions in federal revenue for the American public—especially after Alaska ended up receiving only half of the $12 million.
Writers of the most recent House Resolution language said on Thursday that those who purchased land in the refuge during the program will be refunded within 30 days of the section’s enactment.
“These protections provide a bridge to our past, but they also build a bridge to a safer, more sustainable future — one where we strengthen our economy and pass on a healthy planet to our children and our grandchildren,” Biden said of the plan, Oct. 8, during remarks on the North Lawn of the White House.
Biden stalled his planned trip to Europe on Thursday in order to urge Congress to back the $1.75 trillion framework agreement released on the same day by the White House.
“No one got everything they wanted, including me,” the President said of the Build Back Better initiative during a briefing in the East Room of the White House.
“But that’s what compromise is,” Biden added, “That’s consensus, and that’s what I ran on.”
In a Jan. 20 executive order, Biden had halted the drilling program, pushing for a new environmental review on possible legal issues surrounding the initiative after he appeared to flip-flop on the issue.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a Biden appointee, released an order in June that reversed Trump’s Alaska drilling program, suspending oil and gas leases in the refuge.
Haaland’s agency said it had “identified defects in the underlying record of decision supporting the leases, including the lack of analysis of a reasonable range of alternatives″ that were required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Miller said in a statement on Thursday that Congress and the Biden administration “will not get a better opportunity to work together to restore protections for the Arctic Refuge.”
“Repealing the oil and gas program is the most important action Congress can take right now to protect threatened Arctic wildlife and ensure the rights, culture and sacred lands of Gwich’in and Iñupiat peoples remain intact, and it is a vital piece of addressing the climate crisis,” she added.
The language will move to the Senate for consideration if approved by the full House.
Follow @@ErikaKate5
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
