Biden Slashes Millions of Acres Eligible for Oil Drilling in Alaska

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The Biden administration is closing off almost half of the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA) from oil and gas drilling, overturning a Trump-era policy that would have allowed oil development on more than 80 percent of the reserve.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the Department of the Interior, announced the decision on April 25.

It marks a return to an Obama administration plan to manage the area that would enable the administration to lease up to 52 percent of the reserve for oil and gas exploration.

Meanwhile, the remaining approximately 11 million acres (48 percent)โ€”which includes the majority of lands within โ€œspecial areasโ€ and much of the coastal area of the reserve along the Beaufort Seaโ€”will be closed off to oil and gas leasing.

The BLM announced in January that it had selected the Obama administrationโ€™s plan as its โ€œpreferred alternativeโ€ for further consideration.

โ€œTodayโ€™s decision ensures the NPR-A will be managed consistent with the 2013 IAP, while including certain more protective lease stipulations and operating procedures for threatened and endangered species from the 2020 IAP/EIS, confirmed through consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service,โ€ BLM said.

BLM said it had prepared a โ€œDetermination of National Environmental Policy Act Adequacy (DNA) for this actionโ€ and assessed the โ€œassociated subsistence evaluation and biological opinions, determining they remain adequate under NEPA, Section 810 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and Endangered Species Act to support a new decision by the Department.โ€

NPRA is the countryโ€™s largest unit of public land and sits on the Alaska North Slope. It is owned by the federal government and managed by the Department of the Interior.

In 2019, the area generated more than $56 million in oil and gas lease revenue, which is authorized under the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976.

It is also home to protected โ€œspecial areasโ€ including Teshekpuk Lake and various wildlife such asย brown bears, caribou, threatened polar bears, walrus, and endangered beluga whales, among others.

Byย Katabella Roberts

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