The Trump administration said on Monday that it planned to eliminate federal protections across millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness, a move that would allow drilling and mining in some of the last remaining pristine wilderness in the country.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the Biden administration had exceeded its authority last year when it banned oil and gas drilling in more than half of the 23 million-acre area, known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The proposed repeal is part of President Trump’s aggressive agenda to “drill, baby, drill,” which calls for increased oil and gas extraction on public lands and the repeal of virtually all climate and environmental protections.
“We’re restoring the balance and putting our energy future back on track,” Mr. Burgum said in a statement.
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is an ecologically sensitive expanse of land about 600 miles north of Anchorage, bounded by the Chukchi Sea to the west and the Beaufort Sea to the north. It is the largest single area of public land in the United States. It covers crucial habitat for grizzly bears, polar bears, caribou, thousands of migratory birds and other wildlife.
Created in the early 1900s, the reserves were originally envisioned as a fuel supply for the Navy in times of emergency. But in 1976, Congress authorized full commercial development of the federal land and ordered the government to balance oil drilling with conservation and wildlife protection.
Mr. Burgum accused the Biden administration of prioritizing “obstruction over production and undermining our ability to harness domestic resources at a time when American energy independence has never been more critical.”
The announcement came as Mr. Burgum traveled to Alaska, accompanied by Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Chris Wright, the secretary of the Energy Department. The three were expected to encourage companies to drill in sensitive areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to support a liquefied natural gas pipeline in the state.
The plan to allow drilling in the petroleum reserve drew praise from the oil industry.
Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are the main driver of climate change, which is heating the planet and creating dangerous new weather patterns. Alaska is warming at a rate two to three times as fast as the global average, resulting in thawing permafrost and melting sea ice. It is also disrupting the hunting, fishing and food-gathering practices of Indigenous communities.
Alaska Native groups have been divided over the Trump administration’s plans for the region.
“Too often, federal decisions that affect our homelands are made without the engagement of the North Slope Inupiat, the people these decisions will affect the most,” said Nagruk Harcharek, president of Voice of the Arctic Inupiat, which represents Inupiat leadership organizations on the North Slope and supports oil and gas projects.
The group supports allowing oil and gas projects in the region, and Mr. Harcharek said the visit by Mr. Burgum and others “shows the federal government sees our communities and people as partners, not a check-the-box exercise.”
Others said opening up the reserve threatened to destroys habitat for caribou and thousands of migratory birds, and would put communities that depend on subsistence hunting at risk.
“This is very concerning to us,” said Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, a former mayor of the predominantly Inupiaq city of Nuiqsut.
Matt Jackson, the Alaska State senior manager at The Wilderness Society, an environmental group, called the repeal of environmental protections an outrage.
“This move will accelerate the climate crisis at a time when the ground beneath Alaska communities is literally melting away and subsistence foods are in decline,” Mr. Jackson said.
Environmental groups and the fossil fuel industry have battled for decades over Alaska’s most pristine and remote places, which often happen to lie over significant oil, gas and mineral deposits.
During his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — home to migrating caribou, polar bears, musk oxen, millions of birds and other wildlife — to drilling. But a lease sale there held in January flopped, ending without a single bidder.
Lisa Friedman is a Times reporter who writes about how governments are addressing climate change and the effects of those policies on communities.
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