The Trump administration rescinded restrictions on oil drilling in Alaska’s mammoth state petroleum reserve, reversing a move by former President Joe Biden that put limits on an area holding an estimated 8.7 billion barrels.
The policy reversal finalized Thursday applies to a 2024 rule that banned drilling on nearly half of the the 23 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a rugged landscape of tundra and wetlands roughly the size of Indiana that teems with wildlife.
Biden in 2024, designated 13 million acres of the reserve as “special areas,” limiting future oil and gas leasing, while maintaining leasing prohibitions on 10.6 million ...