FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 2022
Denver—The Bureau of Land Management announced today that it will revert to Obama-era plans for management of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, throwing out an eleventh-hour Trump administration plan that would have opened up 82 percent of the reserve to oil and gas drilling.
By returning to the 2013 plan, the Biden administration effectively takes 7 million acres off the table for future oil and gas leasing.
The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Deputy Director Aaron Weiss:
“This is an important reversal of one of the most damaging decisions to come out of the Trump administration’s final days. Former secretary David Bernhardt committed a spree of regulatory vandalism on his way out the door, and it’s taken a full year to reverse that damage.”
“Now the Biden administration must look to the future, creating management plans that ensure all of America’s public lands, from Alaska to New Mexico, are part of the climate solution. President Biden has the opportunity to press ‘reset’ on conservation and reassert America’s role as a global leader on climate change.
“We encourage the administration to complete a full analysis of the climate impacts of oil and gas production on public lands, and make sure any future oil leasing takes into account the lasting impact that drilling will have on our children and grandchildren.”