Obama in Another Battle with GOP over Oil Drilling Ban in Wildlife Refuge

Jan 26, 2015 05:03 AM EST

(Photo : Reuters) Caribou are seen in the 1002 Area of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain, with the Beaufort Sea and icebergs in the background in this 2008 handout photo from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released to Reuters October 1, 2010. A planned study of possible new wilderness protections for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has sparked a furor in Alaska, where energy companies have long dreamed of tapping oil reserves beneath its vast coastal plain home to herds of migrating animals. REUTERS/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Handout (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENERGY ENVIRONMENT)

The dust has hardly settled over U.S. President Barack Obama's clash with the Republican Party on immigration reforms, and another one is building up. The topic of their new battle is the proposed ban on oil drilling in a wildlife refuge.

Obama said on Sunday that he plans to designate large chunks of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as wilderness, which would make it off-limits to oil exploration and extraction. It would cover 1.52 million acres of coastal plain, 5.85 million acres of the Brooks mountain range and 4.92 million acres of the Porcupine Plateau, according to the Washington Post.

Like Us on Facebook

Republican Senator Dan Sullivan from Alaska warned that the plan would place the energy sector of the U.S. in serious danger. He promised that the GOP would defeat the White House's "lawless attempt" to declare the area as wilderness and to make the whole state a big national park.

Another state senator from the same party, Lisa Murkowski, vowed to fight back with all of GOP's resources.

Part of the area is a narrow strip between the Brooks Range mountains and Arctic Ocean with an estimated 10.3 billion barrels of oil in its coastal plain.

However, John Podesta, adviser of the president, and Mike Boots, acting chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, pointed out in a blog post on the White House webpage that the area is home to a wide and diverse group of wildlife in the whole Arctic region such as the porcupine caribou, polar bear, gray wolf, muskoxen and bird species that later migrate to the other states.

The two said that drilling for oil would "irreparably damage" the land considered an ecological treasure and negatively impact native Alaskan communities that are dependent on the caribou as their source of livelihood.

In support of Obama's move, the Interior Department released on Sunday a comprehensive plan recommending extra protection measures.

Congress has the final say on designation of the area as protected wildlife, but the Interior Department plans to start managing the area as its level of protection.

The department is set to announce in the coming week initiatives that will affect Alaska's oil and gas production and is mulling more limits on oil activities in parts of the state's National Petroleum Reserve.