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WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is setting aside 187,000 square miles in Alaska as a “critical habitat” for polar bears, an action that could add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas.
The total, which includes large areas of sea ice off the Alaska coast, is about 13,000 square miles, or 8.3 million acres, less than in a preliminary plan released last year.
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell and the state’s oil-and-gas industry had complained that the preliminary plan released last year was too large and drastically underestimated the potential economic impact.
