President Barack Obama is leaving his mark as he prepares to leave office, with his administration announcing Friday it will likely ban new oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean though 2022.
According to The Huffington Post, the Department of the Interior is expected to make the practice illegal in the portion of the Arctic Ocean that lies in U.S. territory from 2017-2022.
"The plan focuses lease sales in the best places — those with the highest resource potential, lowest conflict, and established infrastructure — and removes regions that are simply not right to lease," Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said in a statement, the Post reports.
"Given the unique and challenging Arctic environment and industry's declining interest in the area, forgoing lease sales in the Arctic is the right path forward."
Under the administration's plan, drilling will be allowed to continue at sites already spoken for. But new drilling leases in two areas — north of Alaska in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas — will be prevented.
Jewell still has to sign off on the proposal, which would go into effect next July.
Some critics of President-elect Donald Trump aren't sure he will have the environment in mind when it comes to making policy decisions once he takes office in January. Others point to his potential picks to head the Department of the Interior as reasons why Americans should be skeptical of his incoming administration, The Guardian notes.
Trump spoke about abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency during his campaign, although he eventually walked away from that proposal, according to the Washington Examiner.
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