Lame-duck President Barack Obama is hellbent on poking his finger in as many Republican eyes as he can in his last days as chief executive.
This week he declare over 100,000 square miles of Alaskan coastline as protected federal land and banned any oil drilling in the area.
The move angered Alaskans across the board who are already hurting economically due to declining oil prices.
Here’s more from Newsmax:
President Barack Obama on Friday made more than 40,000 square miles of Alaska’s coast off limits to oil and gas drilling and committed $30 million to projects in rural Alaska and northern Canada ahead of his final days in the White House.
“The coastal tribes along the northern Bering Sea and the Bering Strait have requested that the Federal Government take action to protect the health of the marine ecosystems of the Northern Bering Sea and Bering Strait while maintaining opportunities for sustainable fishing and sustainable economic development,” said a press release on the White House website.
Obama responded by signing an executive order creating the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area, a 112,300 square-mile area where the Bering Task Force will help coordinate federal activity and consider additional mechanisms to reduce impacts to subsistence and cultural activities within the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area.
But the move was not appreciated by some of Alaska’s Republican lawmakers.
“At a time when the state is grappling with declining oil prices and production. We are concerned about the timing and lack of clarity on how this executive order will be implemented in the coming years,” said Alaska Gov. Bill Walker.
