(Adds details of plan, quotes from industry group andenvironmentalist)
By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The Obama administration onFriday blocked new exploration for oil and gas in Arctic waters,in a win for environmental groups that had fought development ofthe ecologically fragile region.
The Department of the Interior released a 2017 to 2022leasing plan that blocked drilling in the Chukchi and BeaufortSeas off northern Alaska. It also limited petroleum developmentin the Cook Inlet off south-central Alaska.
Environmental activists have battled drilling in Alaska toprotect whales, walruses and seals, and as part of a broadermovement to keep remaining fossil fuels in the ground.
The Interior Department said the plan was "balanced," andleft 70 percent of economically recoverable oil and gasresources open to drilling, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico.
The plan focuses on the best areas "with the highestresource potential, lowest conflict and establishedinfrastructure - and removes regions that are simply not rightto lease," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said.
President Barack Obama, who last year became the firstsitting president to cross the Arctic Circle, has made fightingclimate change and protecting the Arctic priorities in hisadministration.
But President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican who takesoffice on Jan. 20, 2017, has vowed to open resources topetroleum development and could take steps to reverse thedecision.
Oil interests have pressured the administration to explorefor energy in the Arctic. Jack Girard, the head of the AmericanPetroleum Institute industry group, said the decision "puts theU.S. at a serious competitive disadvantage."
Russia and Norway have also explored the Arctic, thoughExxon Mobil wound down drilling in the Russian north in2014 due to U.S. sanctions over Moscow's aggression in easternUkraine.
Fierce winds and frigid waters make the Arctic treacherousfor drilling equipment. After spending billions of dollars toexplore the Alaskan Arctic, Royal Dutch Shell retreatedin 2015 after suffering a gash in one of its ships andenvironmentalists had uncovered details of an old law thatforced the company to cut exploration there by half.
The U.S. Coast Guard complained when Shell was drilling offAlaska that it had been forced to divert resources, including avessel that fought cocaine trafficking, to keep operations inthe region safe. (http://reut.rs/2g4yHSW)
Environmentalists applauded the new lease plan, which builton a similar decision in March when the government removed muchof the Atlantic ocean from oil and gas leasing for five years.
"This is excellent news for our oceans, from the Arctic tothe Atlantic," said Jacqueline Savitz, deputy vice president forU.S. campaigns of Oceana, an international advocacy group.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; editing by Cynthia Osterman, GCrosse)
