Millions of acres of Alaska wilderness will lose federal protections and be exposed to drilling and mining in the Trump administration’s latest move to prioritize energy production over the shielding of the U.S.’s open spaces.
Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, said on Monday that the government would reverse an order issued by Joe Biden in December that banned drilling in the remote 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A, The New York Times reported.
The former president’s executive order was part of a package of protections for large areas of Alaska, some elements of which the state was challenging in court when Biden left office in January.
Burgum was speaking in Alaska on Monday, accompanied by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. He said the Biden administration had prioritized “obstruction over production” and Biden’s order was “undermining our ability to harness domestic resources at a time when American energy independence has never been ... Read more
