The Biden administration has halted a Trump-era plan to approve a mining road in Alaska that would cut through indigenous land and alter one of the last roadless wildernesses in the US.
The construction of the Ambler Road in northwest Alaska was permitted under Donald Trump over the objections from some native American groups, allowing the laying of 211 miles of road through the traditional homelands of the Koyukon, Tanana Athabascans and Iñupiat peoples.
The department of interior has now asked a federal court in Alaska to send the permit back to the department as there are “significant deficiencies we have identified” in the decision-making that led to the approval. The department said it would conduct a new environmental analysis to determine the impact of the road, which critics said will disturb pristine tundra, rivers and wildlife.
The road “represents a fundamental threat to our people, our subsistence way of life and our cultural resources,” said Brian Ridley, president of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, which represents 42 tribes in Alaska. “We appreciate that the federal government recognized the flaws in the previous administration’s decisions to permit the road.”
Trustees for Alaska, an environment group that sued to stop the road, said that the Biden administration should’ve gone further by fully revoking the permit. “This project never should have been authorized in the first place, and the agencies can’t fix their broken analysis by papering over their mistakes after the fact,” said Suzanne Bostrom, senior staff attorney with the group.
Approved in July 2020, the road is seen by proponents as an essential link to access valuable deposits in the area such as copper, cobalt, zinc, silver and gold. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican representing Alaska, said that the reversal is “stunning” and will threaten “this crucial project, which will enable Alaska to responsibly produce a range of needed minerals.”
An assortment of Australian and Canadian mining companies, and Alaska’s industrial development and export authority, planned to spend $60m this year for the road and associated mines in the area, before lawsuits from native and environmental groups sought to stymie the project.
