[Army Air Corps]

I think that the sentence that you emphasised in bold refers to proposed offshore drilling. Note the statment a couple of sentences down.

...the US Department of the Interior, said the Alaskan land that will now be offered requires no other approvals and will be up for leasing in the autumn.

[hole_n_one]

You’re right!

[ichabod1]

My next question would be, is there any oil on this land? The rats seem to grudgingly allow exploration in certain places, as long as they know there aren’t any economic oil reserves on them.