Energy Cabinet Visits Alaska, Rolls Back Petroleum Reserve Restrictions

During a visit to Alaska this week, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced the administration will rescind a Biden-era rule that recently restricted oil and gas leasing in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A). 

The NPR-A is 23 million acres, or about the size of Indiana, in Alaska’s northwest. It was designated a petroleum reserve in 1923 by President Warren Harding for the U.S. Navy. 

The Biden restrictions were finalized in May 2024. The rule blocked off about 40% of the NPR-A from any leasing in “special areas.” At the time of the decision, Alaska’s entire congressional delegation, including then-Democratic Representative Mary Peltola, wrote in The Hill that the rule “ignored the voices of Alaska Natives,” erected “new barriers for connective infrastructure” and sought “to establish a presumption that future leasing and development will simply not be allowed.” 

Here’s more about the rule reversal from the Interior Department’s press release: 

After a thorough legal and policy review, Bureau of Land Management and Department officials concluded that the 2024 Bureau of Land Management rule entitled “Management and Protection of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska” exceeds the agency’s statutory authority under the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976, conflicts with the Act’s purpose, and imposes unnecessary barriers to responsible energy development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

When the rule is rescinded, regulations will revert to those in place prior to May 7, 2024, which guide leasing decisions through integrated activity plans that include provisions to protect wildlife habitat, subsistence use, and surface value. The proposed rule will be published in the Federal Register and open to public comment for 60 days.

The announcement was made at a town hall in Alaska’s northernmost community of Utqiagvik. Senator Dan Sullivan also attended the town hall and said that “the announcement was roundly met with cheers from Alaskans of the North Slope,” whose communities benefit from oil production.  

Burgum was joined by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin on a panel discussion in Anchorage at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference on Tuesday, with Secretary Burgum noting that federal overreach meant that Alaska has been “fighting for statehood every day since.” In the discussion of the NPR-A, Secretary Burgum was clear about the original purpose of the NPR-A: “There’s no wilderness that’s being touched. Yes, there’s amazing wildlife. Yes, we can protect all that. But it’s not a wilderness area.” 

It is deeply encouraging that the Trump-Vance administration is valuing Alaskan input on important natural resource development issues. Instead of treating Alaska like a wilderness area, as the Biden-Harris administration did, these energy cabinet members went straight to the source to understand it.