The Trump administration on Monday unraveled an effort begun during Joe Biden’s presidency to study and seek public input about whether additional protections are warranted for sensitive landscapes on Alaska’s North Slope.
The Interior Department rescinded a request for information, published in July 2024, asking for feedback from stakeholders on whether protection-designated areas in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska needed to have their boundaries adjusted, whether new areas should be considered for protection and if there were “significant resource values” that had until then been missed.
The NPR-A allows oil and gas drilling in portions of the reserve but also has “special areas” that have broad environmental protections for their sensitive habitats.
Interior also rescinded a report on the public comments received about the NPR-A, which included determinations by the Bureau of Land Management that “subsistence” be recognized as a “significant resource value” in the special areas, and noting that proposed expansions of several currently designated special areas “are suitable for designation and merit further consideration.”
