In June, the Biden administration suspended oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reversing former President Trump’s implementation of a provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that opened up the refuge’s Coastal Plain to drilling. On Aug. 4, the Bureau of Land Management released a Notice of Intent for public scoping of its new environmental impact statement on oil and gas leasing on the Coastal Plain. The Notice, which permits “comments on issues, impacts, and potential new alternatives to be analyzed may be submitted in writing until October 4, 2021,” cites “legal deficiencies” in the Trump administration’s environmental impact statement as motivation for the new statement. “I think the underlying [legal] claims are laughable,” said David Bernhardt, former Secretary of the Interior under Trump. “This administration is unequivocally opposed to proceeding forward with the law that was passed in 2017.” Senator Dan Sullivan …