Despite soaring energy prices, the Biden administration on Monday said it would scrap a Trump-era policy that would have opened millions of acres in Alaska to new oil development.
The Trump administration had given the green light to expanded leasing and development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, “one of the most promising onshore oil prospects in the country,” The Washington Post reported at the time. The plan would’ve opened about 82 percent of the reserve to fossil fuel extraction. Former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said it was part of President Trump’s commitment to “expand access to our Nation’s great energy potential.”
"A recent analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey offered a mean estimate of 8.7 billion barrels in undiscovered oil and 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas" in the reserve, WaPo said in its 2020 report.
In a statement, the Bureau of Land Management said the new “decision reflects the Biden-Harris administration's priority of reviewing existing oil and gas programs to ensure balance on America's public lands and waters to benefit current and future generations.”
Alaska Republicans blasted the reversal.
The Biden administration has decided to upend the NPR-A’s current management plan to return to an outdated policy that is worse for our state’s economy, worse for our nation’s energy security, and contrary to federal law. https://t.co/YPEpOamcA0
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) January 11, 2022
“For years, the NPR-A has been crucial to providing affordable energy to families across our country,” said Rep. Don Young (R-AK). “This move by the Biden Administration is not only insulting to the hardworking men and women on the North Slope, but also extremely foolish. Gas prices around the nation are soaring; why then would President Biden and the BLM want to kneecap our domestic production, thereby emboldening our oil-producing adversaries overseas?”