Via The Hill:
President Obama has rescinded a proposal to allow new oil and natural gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean as part of a five-year plan for leasing released on Friday.
Obama’s move takes drilling rights sales off the table through 2022.
The Interior Department had previously proposed limited drilling rights sales to the Beaufort and Chukchi seas north of Alaska, where there has never been oil and natural gas production from traditional mobile drilling rigs.
But officials, citing environmental concerns and low industry interest, rescinded that proposal on Friday in releasing the new plan.
The decision all but bans Arctic drilling for that time period, since oil companies have let almost all of their leases in the Arctic expire or have surrendered them.