The Biden administration is closing off almost half of the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA) from oil and gas drilling, overturning a Trump-era policy that would have allowed oil development on more than 80 percent of the reserve.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the Department of the Interior, announced the decision on April 25.
It marks a return to an Obama administration plan to manage the area that would enable the administration to lease up to 52 percent of the reserve for oil and gas exploration.
Meanwhile, the remaining approximately 11 million acres (48 percent)—which includes the majority of lands within “special areas” and much of the coastal area of the reserve along the Beaufort Sea—will be closed off to oil and gas leasing.
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