Audrey Streb
DCNF Energy Reporter
President Donald Trump’s administration is moving to repeal a Biden-era rule that restricted oil drilling and infrastructure across Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, according to the Department of the Interior (DOI).
The Biden administration policy designated around 13 million acres on the North Slope in Alaska as “special areas,” restricting oil and gas leasing as part of former President Joe Biden’s major crackdown on natural resource extraction in the state. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced the policy change on Sunday, furthering Trump’s January executive order directing deregulatory moves to allow for oil, gas and mineral development in the state, according to Bloomberg.
“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 Monday 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. We’re restoring the balance and putting our energy future back on track.” (RELATED: Alaskan Tribes ‘Applaud’ Trump Admin Revoking ‘Deeply Flawed’ Biden Admin Energy Policy)
In Alaska with @SecretaryBurgum @SecretaryWright. We just wrapped up a great 3-hour roundtable with @SenDanSullivan @lisamurkowski @GovDunleavy and local leaders in Anchorage discussing ways the Trump Admin is partnering closely with the state to unleash energy DOMINANCE. pic.twitter.com/Vzp8TNdX6r
— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) June 1, 2025
DOI determined the Biden-era rule was “inconsistent with the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976,” the agency said Monday. The Trump administration’s proposed rule will be released in the Federal Register and available for public feedback for 60 days.
Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve on the North Slope contains 8.7 billion barrels of retrievable oil, according to estimates from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The reserve, spanning about 23 million acres in total across Alaska’s North Slope, was designated by Congress for oil and gas development for national energy security in response to the oil crisis of the 1970s.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who was also in Alaska to discuss promoting energy, said that restrictive policies have been “smothering” the region’s potential for years, adding that he expects oil development in Alaska to potentially quadruple on its North Slope, Bloomberg reported.
Beyond placing restrictions on Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, the Biden administration also targeted the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), retroactively canceled lease sales and effectively blocked a major mining project in the state, often citing the administration’s commitment to protecting the environment for native communities in official statements and press releases. However, these actions deeply disappointed some Alaska Native communities, who told the Daily Caller News Foundation previously that the administration largely disregarded their desire for development essential to their community’s economy.
Trump has moved to increase domestic power production through several executive orders to cut red tape for different energy industries and declared a “national energy emergency” upon returning to office.
DOI, DOE, Republican Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan and Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s offices did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
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Another Biden Autopen Executive Order goes down, now, about Hunter’s pardon….
Slowly but surely Trump is reversing the damage done in the last four years. People that believe his America First agenda is wrong need to find a country to live that doesn’t agree with it.
Now, if only a few RINOs could get on board.
More good news. Move over wind and solar.
Excellent news. The DOI needs to review the other obstructionist decisions from the past years that have blocked/stalled development of Alaska’s natural resources. I’m thinking of the Pebble deposit and the road to the Ambler district. Alaska is gifted with abundant natural resources but Federal control has curbed development. Most of the opposition to resource development comes from those in the lower 48 who have never been to Alaska and have no true knowledge of the state other than to say it should be “saved”. .
The world-famous Pebble copper mine will never happen because it threatens the Bristol Bay salmon fishery, which supports five species of salmon and has the world’s largest sockeye salmon run.
If President Trump would give the go ahead by EO for the mine, a great many protesters and especially Greenpeace and the heavily-armed first nation peoples would swarm into the area to prevent construction of the mine.
There is huge file on Wikipedia on the Pebble Mine. Even Rio Tinto from Qz had invested into Northern Dynasty.
5% of the water feed to the river feeding Bristol Bay comes from that valley. Note that the natural weathering is generating acid TODAY and is poisoning the ecosystem already and that that (totally natural) acid weathering that is how the deposit was originally found. The mining plan calls for mining and recovery of that orebody, stopping future (natural) poisoning. The dilution of this poisoning means fish can survive there now, it doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be more fish if the (natural) poisoning were stopped because the mining began.
Only when simulated using unpermittable 100 year old mining methods without any reclamation or water management is there any threat to surface run-off water from mining activities. Using this approach is like using the 8.7 IPCC case to claim huge future impacts based on normal everyday life and experience – it looks scary, but to those in the business it’s foolishness that is being used to push an agenda because it’s not based in best practices or the sciences.
My error, RCP 8.5, not 8.7
The Arctic NPR has ~6 billion barrels of oil, while the Arctic ocean continental shelf Ocean has many hundreds of billion barrels of oil reserve, over 600 billion in the Chukchi Sea alone. The Okhotsk Berkut Oil Platform is an example capable of operating in Arctic conditions, including several meter of sea ice and servicing many wells over a wide area. The Norwegians are moving into the Arctic Ocean strongly. Are we incapable of the same or not?
In addition, the Arctic Ocean is supposed to be ice-free soon. :).
Ice free only in the summer.
No according to the climate apocalypse manifesto.