![]() The proposed rule, which will be available for public comment in the coming months, will consider additional protections for the more than 13 million acres designated as Special Areas in recognition of their importance to wildlife and subsistence uses. First, the Interior Department is initiating a rulemaking to achieve maximum protection for Special Areas in the NPR-A. The Biden-Harris administration announced yesterday important steps to limit future industrial development in the NPR-A. They significantly scale-back the Willow Project within the constraints of valid existing rights under decades-old leases issued by prior Administrations. ![]() The actions will create an additional buffer from exploration and development activities near the calving grounds and migratory routes for the Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd, an important subsistence resource for nearby Alaska Native communities. This reduces the project’s freshwater use and eliminates all infrastructure related to the two rejected drill sites, including approximately 11 miles of roads, 20 miles of pipelines, and 133 acres of gravel, all of which reduces potential impacts to caribou migration and subsistence users. The concurrent relinquishment of 68,000 acres by the company of its existing northernmost and southernmost leases within the Bear Tooth Unit reduces the Bear Tooth Unit’s footprint in the NPR-A by one-third. The Record of Decision denies two of the five drill site pads proposed by ConocoPhillips, reducing the project’s drill pads by 40 percent. ![]() The company will also relinquish rights to approximately 68,000 acres of its existing leases in the NPR-A, including approximately 60,000 acres in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area. The Department is substantially reducing the size of the project by denying two of the five drill sites proposed by ConocoPhillips, which is seeking to develop oil and gas leases it acquired beginning in the late 1990s. Contact: – Today, the Interior Department issued a Record of Decision regarding the proposed Willow Master Development Plan in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A).
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