In a win for environmentalists, the U.S. Interior Department says it is willing to withdraw sensitive wetlands from a large area in Alaska’s western Arctic region that it wanted to open next week to oil and natural gas drilling.

The U.S. District Court of Alaska earlier this month blocked the department’s plan to allow energy development on lands around Teshekpuk Lake in the National Petroleum Reserve, saying the government’s assumptions about the environmental impact of drilling in the area were faulty.

Full Story: Environmental News Network.