Audubon Magazine
Audubon Magazine: Critics say Biden must do more to keep Arctic oil in the ground
After one year in the White House, President Joe Biden is taking fire from all sides when it comes to the government’s stance on fossil fuels. Environmentalists are fed up with his failure to halt oil and gas activity on federal lands. Meanwhile, energy companies castigate him for taking steps to rein in the industry. The administration is caught in the middle, trying to meet climate goals while facing the legal and political challenges of freezing development where drillers already hold federal leases.
Now, on Alaska’s North Slope, Biden’s fossil-fuel balancing act—or, as critics see it, his attempt to have it both ways—is playing out across the wild landscape of the nation’s largest tract of public land, with high stakes for Arctic wildlife and the global climate.
