Trump administration seeks to revoke limits on oil drilling in parts of Alaska’s North Slope

Several oil projects are active in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. (Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management, CC BY-SA)

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on Thursday that it will revoke three documents intended to form the basis for limits on oil drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

Those documents, and the limits themselves, were issued in the last year of President Joe Biden’s administration. 

Since his election, President Donald Trump has prioritized administrative moves that would reverse Biden decisions limiting oil and gas drilling in Alaska.

The latest move targets the Biden administration’s decision to prioritize subsistence hunting and fishing and traditional Indigenous uses in about 3 million acres of the 23-million-acre petroleum reserve that lies west of Prudhoe Bay.

That decision followed prior decisions by the Biden administration and President Barack Obama’s administration that put about half the reserve off limits to oil development.

Now, the Trump administration is planning to open 82% of the reserve to oil and gas drilling.

Thursday’s announcement, rescinding three planning documents, is a step toward that end. 

On Wednesday, ahead of the official notice in the Federal Register, all three members of Alaska’s congressional delegation expressed support for the move and praised the Trump administration for taking action.

• James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.