The Biden administration is setting in motion actions that could prevent drilling in more “special areas” of Alaska’s north slope — if the incoming Trump administration does not shelve it.
The Interior Department issued a memo Thursday proposing a new protected area and prosing to expand existing protected areas.
The impacted areas would be expected to total more than 3 million additional protected acres within a 23-million-acre area known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The new protected area would be called the Nuiqsut Subsistence Use Area. The Nuiqsut community is located near the controversial Willow oil project. Existing activity that’s part of that project is not expected to be impacted, but if the policies are left in place, they could impact efforts to further expand it.
The move comes on top of prior decisions to block drilling on 13 million acres within the petroleum reserve and reverse a Trump-era decision to open up 80 percent of it for oil and gas production.
Laura Daniel-Davis, Interior’s acting deputy secretary, told reporters the move comes in response to “really consistent feedback that there are additional areas…that people believed merited protection within the reserve.”
The move comes just days before President-elect Trump’s inauguration. He is expected to broadly pursue policies that open up more opportunities for oil and gas as part of a commitment to “drill baby drill.” This latest policy is among those his administration is likely to reverse.
The reserve in Alaska’s North Slope was set aside in 1923 by President Harding as an emergency supply of oil for the Navy.
The area is also home to caribou herds, threatened and sensitive bird species, and other animals, including polar bears.
In addition to expanding the protected areas, the memo also directs the Bureau of Land Management to seek to protect and reduce potential harm to areas important for tribal food-gathering practices.
