President Joe Biden is suspending eleven oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) auctioned during the Trump administration, according to the Washington Post. The move is a blow to Alaska’s economy and ability to create jobs and opportunities for hard-working residents and their families. According to the report, Biden’s Interior Department, led by Sec. Deb Haaland, has made the decision. 

 

Kelly Tshibaka, Alaska conservative Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, today issued the following statement: 

 

“Following six decades of fighting for access to ANWR, this is disastrous news for Alaska workers, our economy, our national security and the environment. It is yet another case of the federal government treating Alaska like a national park for the rest of the country while trampling our state sovereignty.   

 

“This is exactly what we expected from Joe Biden and his band of environmental extremists, but it should be especially distressing to Alaskans that Sen. Lisa Murkowski had a hand in this. She fought President Trump every step of the way, opposing his election in 2016 and his re-election in 2020, even though his policies were very beneficial to Alaska—including opening ANWR for ‘cleaner and greener’ oil exploration. She even cast the deciding vote in committee to advance Deb Haaland’s nomination as Interior Secretary without publicly asking questions about future oil and gas leases. That vote cost Alaska billions. What exactly did Murkowski expect would happen? 

 

“It’s time Alaska had a senator who stood up for us, rather than one who enables the very people who are dead set on ruining our state.”

 

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