Trump-era oil, gas leases in Alaska refuge suspended

US President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday said it would suspend oil and gas leases that were handed out in an Alaska wildlife refuge during the final days of the Trump administration pending an environmental review. 

The action reverses one of former President Donald Trump's signature efforts to expand fossil fuel development in the United States, and delivers a setback to the Alaskan state government which had hoped opening the enormous refuge would help revive its declining oil industry.

Trump's Interior Department sold the leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in January over the objections of environmentalists and indigenous groups. During his campaign, Biden had pledged to protect the 19.6 million-acre pristine habitat for polar bears, caribou and migratory birds.

White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said Biden was "grateful for the prompt action by the Department of the Interior," and said the Trump administration's hastily-held auction of oil and gas leases in the refuge "could have changed the character of this special place forever."