The Biden administration is moving to protect some 16 million acres of land and water in Alaska from future oil and gas drilling, according to plans the Interior Department announced Sunday.
The big picture: President Biden's conservation drive comes as climate activists, environmentalists and other groups express concern that his administration will soon approve the ConocoPhillips Willow oil project, a large-scale facility to be located on the North Slope of a swath of land known as the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A).
Storms associated with atmospheric rivers have dumped record amounts of rain and snow in California this winter, resulting in flooding and other hazards.
The big picture: Atmospheric rivers direct tropical moisture, often from more than 1,500 miles away, toward the Golden State, where it is wrung out in the form of heavy precipitation.
