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Tax Bill Passing Also Opens Door For Drilling At ANWR

Tax Bill Passing Also Opens Door For Drilling At ANWR

By December20, 2017 Featured Content 0 Comments

White House photo

 

 

One of the subplots to President Trump’s hotly contested and debated tax bill cut proposal that was passed by the Senate and House in the early-morning hours on Wednesday also opened the door for drilling to take place on parts of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.  

Here’s the Anchorage Daily News with more:

The tax bill included a measure to open a 1.5-million-acre coastal section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

The measure, written by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, requires the federal government to hold two lease sales within seven years in a 1.5-million-acre section of the coastal plain. The first lease sale must be held within four years, and could lead to drilling and oil production.

Alaska’s congressional delegation hailed the approval of the provision as a momentous victory after about four decades of failed attempts to open the coastal plain. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill.

“This is a watershed moment for Alaska and all of America,” Murkowski said in a prepared statement from the delegation. “We have fought to open the 1002 Area for a very long time, and now, our day has finally arrived.”

The “1002 area” is the coastal section as named in the 1980 law that set the area aside for possible development, with the approval of Congress and the White House.

“This is a major victory for Alaska that will help us fulfill the promises of our statehood and give us renewed hope for growth and prosperity,” she said.

Reaction on Twitter had the obvious mixed emotions:

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