Trump Agency Moves to Expand Drilling in Alaskan Oil Reserve
- Interior Department begins rewriting Obama-era management plan
- National Petroleum Reserve set aside for energy development
Caribou on the tundra near Teshekpuk Lake in the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve.
Photographer: Jeff Schultz/First Light/Getty Images
The Trump administration is moving to expand the territory open for oil exploration in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, a process that could shift drilling rigs closer to herds of caribou and flocks of threatened birds.
With a notice Tuesday, the Interior Department is taking the first formal step toward rewriting a five-year-old Obama administration management plan that put roughly half of the 22.1-million-acre reserve off limits. The new management plan will reflect “exciting new discoveries” and advances in technology, said Joe Balash, assistant secretary of the Interior for land and minerals management.