The Odessa Record - Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!

While media focus was on Joe Biden's decree putting a tiny plot of land within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off limits to oil and gas exploration, reporters ignored the bigger story.

Biden's other proclamation forbids tapping more than 10 million acres within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, a 23-million-acre area on Alaska's North Slope. That is the area which should replenish the crude oil drawdown stemming from Biden's oil withdrawal from strategic wells established in case of war.

Allowing new Alaska exploration would help our refineries, workers and state and local eco...