Alaskan lawmakers, a former interior secretary, and environmental activists are reacting by turns with condemnation and praise for a federal judge’s decision to vacate approval for ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska (NPR-A). Judge Sharon Gleason’s Aug. 18 ruling on the Project, which was expected to produce over 100,000 barrels of oil per day and thousands of jobs, cited insufficient calculations of greenhouse gas emissions and inadequately specific mitigation measures for polar bears, among other factors. “In my personal opinion, the judge got the law wrong on the [Endangered Species Act] and the Biological Opinion,” Bernhardt told The Epoch Times. “The other items were reviewed very closely by interior professionals and their lawyers before the decisions were made.” The ruling comes after the Biden administration suspended oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in June. At the time, Secretary of the Interior Deb …
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