Ruling against ConocoPhillips, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and other federal agencies, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska has vacated approval for ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska (NPR-A), citing insufficient calculations of greenhouse gas emissions and inadequately specific mitigation measures for polar bears, among other factors. 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, and which was supported by the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, has met with criticism from Alaskan lawmakers and David Bernhardt, former interior secretary under President Trump. “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 …
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