The Trump administration announced Monday it is moving ahead with plans to reopen millions of acres of undisturbed public land to oil and gas drilling, amid a visit by top officials to Alaska this week.
The Bureau of Land Management will issue a proposed rescission of a Biden-era rule that banned drilling on nearly half of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), reverting to regulations in place prior to May 7, 2024.
“Congress was clear: the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska was set aside to support America’s energy security through responsible development,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. “The 2024 rule ignored that mandate, prioritizing obstruction over production and undermining our ability to harness domestic resources at a time when American energy independence has never been more critical.”
The proposed change, which will be published in the Federal Register, will trigger a 60-day comment period. Reverting to previous regulations would open up 11 million acres to drilling as well as removing conditions — such as considering Indigenous knowledge and solidifying protections for sensitive ecological areas — on oil and gas leases in the reserve.
The Interior Department said it had completed “a thorough legal and policy review” following the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs’ announcement last week that it had completed its own analysis.
Burgum, who visited Alaska with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, repeatedly slammed the Biden-era regulations during a Sunday forum that also included Republican Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.
“The job the three of us have at the federal level is to unwind the 70 — I’ll call them sanctions —the 70 EOs that restricted Alaska,” Burgum said, referring to Wright and Zeldin. He later added: “Alaska was getting sanctioned more than Iran in the last four years.”
Burgum also criticized proponents of environmental protections in the state for attempting to “treat Alaska like a snow globe.”
“Do they want to save the environment or are some of those people just trying to restrict our ability to be competitive?” he said.
In the statement announcing BLM’s decision and the looming Federal Register notice, Burgum pointed to the Trump administration’s push to increase oil and gas extraction on public lands. That includes Burgum’s own order to grow fossil fuel production.
Burgum also appeared on Fox News with Wright. Burgum cited the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and NPR-A as “two areas that President [Donald] Trump has set free for development.”
The announcement drew criticism from environmentalists, who argued the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act that created the area is intended for both conservation and energy production.
“Everyone who cares about public lands and is concerned about the climate crisis should be outraged by this move to exploit America’s public lands for the benefit of corporations and the president’s wealthy donors,” said Matt Jackson, the Wilderness Society’s Alaska senior manager. “Worst of all, this move will accelerate the climate crisis at a time when the ground beneath Alaska communities is literally melting away and subsistence foods are in decline.”
