Government will maintain large-scale construction ban on 28 million acres in Alaska • Alaska Beacon

The federal government will continue to ban mining, drilling and other forms of development on 28 million acres of federal lands across Alaska, the Interior Department said. announced Tuesday.

The move, welcomed by environmental groups and scorned by Governor Mike Dunleavy and the state’s congressional delegation, reverses a measure taken in the final days of President Donald Trump’s administration.

This government tried to open the country for developmentBut after President Joe Biden took office, the Interior Department said the Trump administration’s process was flawed and that it would redo the job.

Earlier this year, the Bureau of Land Management published an environmental impact statement Saying that the agency was inclined to maintain the old rules.

The lands in question are collectively referred to as “D-1 areas” because they were taken out of development under Section 17(d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

In public commentsmore than half of the state-recognized tribes urged the federal government to leave the land undeveloped.

The United Tribes of Bristol Bay was one of several groups celebrating Tuesday’s decision. The organization said via email that the “decision is a significant victory for tribal communities across Alaska whose voices have played a critical role in defending the protection of these lands.”

Anaan’arar Sophie Swope, executive director of the Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition, said the decision announced by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was “an important step toward a future filled with healthy lands, waters and people living off wild salmon, waterfowl, other migratory animals and seasonal plant life.”

Governor Mike Dunleavy, in a statement The decision was condemned on social media and described as a “sanction against Alaska.”

Dunleavy supports mining and drilling, calling them beneficial to the state’s economy and therefore to its people.

Joe Plesha, a spokesman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, noticed that both Murkowski and Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) supported the Trump administration’s actions in the form of executive orders to seize public lands.

“Under this administration, PLOs have become ‘political land orders.’ Alaskans were completely ripped off when the BLM backed away from its own recommendation and commitment to return Alaska’s lands to federal multiple use status,” Plesha said via email. “The fact that they have not lifted a single PLO on a single acre belies the notion that this is anything other than campaign politics.”