www.AlaskaAlliance.com 11 Full-service logistics. Get a free quote: 800.321.6518 AlaskaRailroad.com/freight Reliable • Eco-friendly • Made for freight UNCOMPLICATE YOUR FREIGHT LOGISTICS plemental Environmental Impact Statement, or DEIS, that had been prepared for the road. Many Alaskans had hoped Interior would instead make a “no recommendation” decision on the DEIS rather than “no action.” No recommendation would have left flexibility for choices in the final Record of Decision. “No action” shuts the door on the road, at least the way it is now planned. Both decisions will prompt lawsuits. In the NPR-A, there will be litigation over Interior’s failure to do tribal and community consultations required by federal law. In the Ambler road case, however, the state will argue that the Interior department action violates provisions in the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Act, or ANILCA, that is explicit in granting an access corridor across federal lands from the state’s Dalton Highway to the Ambler Mining District. On the NPR-A, half of the 23-million-acre petroleum reserve will be in a protected status, about the same amount of acreage as when Sally Jewell was President Barack Obama’s Interior Secretary. Most of this has little oil and gas potential except northeastern areas of the reserve where ConocoPhillips is developing Willow. While ConocoPhillips’ federal leases around Willow are not affected, for now, the new BLM rule allows special designated protected areas in the reserve to be expanded which could affect any expanded development near Willow or along the Colville River near where Santos and Repsol are working. Part of the Santos and Repsol leases around the Horseshoe discovery south of Pikka extends into federal lands in the petroleum reserve. In that area the new rule adds uncertainty. As for Ambler, most of the proposed road route is on state-owned land as is the mining district where companies are exploring. The nearterm effect of Interior’s decision will be on exploration companies. South 32, a major Australian mining company, and Trilogy Metals, a small Canadian “junior” exploration company, have done significant exploration at the Arctic highgrade discover, but had paused their work in the last two years because of the uncertainty over BLM’s position on the road. Ambler Metals, the CONTINUED on PAGE 12
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