WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior plans to reverse a rule the Biden administration enacted last year to protect wildlife and indigenous communities in Alaska from oil and gas drilling.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Monday the Biden administration exceeded its authority when it enacted a rule to protect 13 million acres of a federal petroleum reserve in the Alaskan wilderness from energy extraction.

What You Need To Know

  • The Department of the Interior plans to reverse a rule the Biden administration enacted last year to protect wildlife and indigenous communities in Alaska from oil and gas drilling
  • Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Monday the Biden administration exceeded its authority when it enacted a rule to protect 13 million acres of wilderness from energy extraction
  • Burgum said the 2024 rule protecting the area was inconsistent with the almost 50-year-old Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act, which set aside the area following the oil crisis of the early 1970s
  • A rule enacted by the Biden administration in May 2024 designated 13 million of the 23 million acres on Alaska’s North Slope as special areas that could not be drilled unless doing so had few adverse effects

“Congress was clear: the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska was set aside to support America’s energy security through responsible development,” Burgum said in a statement accompanying the proposed rescission of the Biden-era rule.

Burgum said the 2024 rule protecting the area was inconsistent with the almost 50-year-old Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act, which set aside the area following the oil crisis of the early 1970s.

The Interior Department’s move to end protections for the area stems from a pair of executive orders President Donald Trump signed in January — one of them declaring a national energy emergency to increase domestic oil, gas and critical minerals production, and another to unleash Alaska’s natural resource potential.

“The State of Alaska holds an abundant and largely untapped supply of natural resources including, among others, energy, mineral, timber and seafood,” the executive order read. “Unlocking the bounty of natural wealth will raise the prosperity of our citizens while helping to enhance our nation’s economic and national security for generations to come.”

A rule enacted by the Biden administration in May 2024 designated 13 million of the 23 million acres on Alaska’s North Slope as special areas that could not be drilled unless doing so had few adverse effects. Located in the northernmost part of the state, it is an ecologically pristine area that has long been home to migratory birds, grizzly bears, caribou and moose on which dozens of indigenous communities subsist.

It is also known to contain large amounts of oil.

The announcement came during a trip Burgum took to Alaska with Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former fracking industry CEO, on Monday.

Trump’s executive orders “are a clear escalation in Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to transfer the benefits of public lands from the American people to corporate polluters,” the Sierra Club said in March, shortly after Burgum said his agency would take steps to increase oil and gas drilling in Alaska.

The Interior Department plans to publish its proposed rule in Federal Register, after which the public will have 60 days to comment on the plan.