The Interior Department of the Obama administration has cancelled future lease sales in the Arctic region and will also not extend current leases in the area in Alaska's northern coast.
The announcement comes in the wake of an announcement by Royal Dutch Shell that it was stopping exploration in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas after an initial investment of $7 billion.
"In light of Shell's announcement, the amount of acreage already under lease and current market conditions, it does not make sense to prepare for lease sales in the Arctic in the next year and a half," said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. The federal government is also cancelling federal petroleum lease sales in U.S. Arctic waters that were scheduled for 2016 and 2017, reported The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The move was welcomed by environmental groups who feel that industrial activity will destroy the fragile eco balance of nature in the region.
"This is great for the Arctic and its polar bears. We need to keep all the Arctic oil in the ground," said Miyoko Sakashita of the Center for Biological Diversity, reported Fox 28.
The decision was met with dismay and frustration in some quarters too, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, calling it "absurd."
"This is a stunning, short-sighted move that betrays the Interior Department's commitments to Alaska and the best interests of our nation's long-term energy security. Today's decision is the latest in a destructive pattern of hostility toward energy production in our state that began the first day this administration took office, and continued ever since," said Murkowski, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, according to USA Today.
