U.S. ditches Trump-era policies for Arctic Alaska oil reserve

Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A polar bear sow and two cubs are seen on the Beaufort Sea coast within the 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in this undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Alaska Image Library on December 21, 2023

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Monday overturned a controversial Trump-era policy that would have opened new swathes of Arctic Alaska to oil development.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the Department of Interior, resurrected Obama-era management policies in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, a 23-million-acre (9.3 million hectare) area on the western side of Alaska's North Slope.

Those reinstated policies, contained in a plan issued in 2013, allow oil leasing in about half of the reserve while boosting protections for areas considered important to the Arctic ecosystem and to indigenous residents.

The plan by the administration of former President Donald Trump, issued in 2020, sought to allow oil development on more than 80% of the reserve. It would have allowed leasing even at Teshekpuk Lake, the North Slope's largest lake and an area prized for wildlife that had been protected under rules dating back to the Reagan administration.