President Biden appears to be doing all he can to become former President Biden, even after his less-than-stellar debate performance Thursday against Donald Trump.
The day after the debate, the Biden administration announced two steps to crack down on oil, gas, and mining in Alaska, The Daily Caller reported.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) has announced plans to protect 28 million acres of Alaska from oil and gas development. Additionally, it has confirmed the decision to halt the Ambler Road project in the state. These decisions reflect the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to restrict mining, oil, and gas activities in Alaska, a state with significant natural resource deposits.
“The Department of the Interior takes seriously our obligations to manage America’s public lands for the benefit of all people. In Alaska, that includes ensuring that we consider the impacts of proposed actions on Alaska Native and rural subsistence users,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said of her agency’s actions. “Guided by feedback from Tribal Nations, Native Corporations, and the best available science, the steps we are taking today to ensure these important areas remain intact for generations to come.”
The Ambler Road project involves the construction of a 211-mile road in Northern Alaska to support a massive mining endeavor in the state’s remote region, according to the Department of the Interior (DOI). The New York Times reported that the road is considered a crucial initial step for the mine’s eventual operation.
According to the New York Times, the copper and other mineral deposits developers aimed to extract with the help of the Ambler Road are potentially worth billions of dollars. The decision to halt the road project could undermine President Joe Biden’s green energy agenda, as copper is essential for manufacturing products such as wind turbines, transmission lines, and photovoltaic cells, the DC reported.
One of Trump’s main campaign issues is that under his first term, the U.S. finally became energy independent. He has also regularly reminded American voters that gasoline and diesel fuel were both a lot cheaper, there was little inflation, and the cost of other goods and services were low compared to Biden’s three-and-a-half years.
As such, the Biden administration’s announcement that it will further restrict another massive swath of land from energy development – which is only likely to keep prices high — will no doubt be picked up on by Trump and used during his campaign.