Arctic drilling, royalty bills clear House committee

The legislation would reinstate Arctic oil drilling leases and block a Bureau of Land Management proposal to limit development in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve.

December 06, 2023

The House Natural Resources Committee approved legislation Wednesday to reinstate oil development rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to block a Biden administration proposal to limit oil and gas leasing in part of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

The committee voted mostly along party lines to advance Minnesota Republican Rep. Pete Stauber’s H.R. 6285, the "Alaska's Right to Produce Act."

“This recent policy decision is just the latest in their efforts to shut down domestic oil and gas production, energy production that adheres to some of the strictest environmental and labor standards in the world,” said Stauber, chair of the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee.

“This administration is hell-bent on bending to the radical activist agenda, and they will not stop until they shut down all oil and gas production across this nation,” he said.

Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska), the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress, co-sponsored the bill and broke with her party in supporting it.

The panel voted down several amendments from full committee ranking member Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.).

One of those amendments included Huffman’s "Arctic Refuge Protection Act," H.R. 724, which would block Stauber’s bill but also walk back the 2017 congressional decision to allow leasing in ANWR.

"The Arctic refugee holds not just the key to ecological balance, but also to the delicate equilibrium of our collective responsibility. To drill is to disrupt, to protect is to honor the intricate cycle of life that unfolds in these pristine wilderness. This is why this amendment strikes the harmful bill and replaces it with the 'Arctic Refuge Protection Act,'" said Grijalva.

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By:  Nidhi Prakash
Source: E&E News