Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt yesterday announced plans tore-open a large federal reserve site in northern Alaska to oil andnatural gas exploration.

The Clinton administration plan calls for producers to resumeleasing on a 4.6 million-acre-site in the National PetroleumReserve-Alaska, which is located in far north Alaska on the NorthSlope area between Brooks Range and the Arctic Ocean, and west ofPrudhoe Bay.

The proposal will be subject to a 30-day comment period,beginning today and ending Sept. 8th. Babbitt is not expected tomake any substantive changes to the proposal, according to AnneJeffery, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska.The area could be open to leasing within three to six months afterthe secretary signs the decision, she noted.

The Interior proposal follows an 18-month study of the federalreserve that enabled regulators to reach “a balance, based on goodscience and broad consultation,” Babbitt said. The last time therewas any exploratory drilling in the reserve region was in1982-1984.

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