Biden administration mulls more Alaska drilling protections

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration is seeking input on whether to add more areas for protection from oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management announced on Friday.

The BLM will take public comment on whether to update protected areas in the Western arctic, including whether to create new protected areas and modify the existing boundaries of the NPR-A.

“With the rapidly changing climate, the Special Areas are increasingly critical to caribou movement and herd health, as well as other wildlife, migratory birds, and native plants,” BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said. We want to hear from the public to ensure we are managing the western Arctic’s significant resource values in the right ways and right places.”

Earlier this month, the state of Alaska filed a lawsuit challenging new federal regulations imposed for oil and gas leasing in the NPR-A in April.

The regulations had blocked development on 40% of NPR-A to protect wildlife habitat and indigenous communities’ way of life, but did not affect existing oil and gas operations.

The NPR-A is a 23 million-acre (9.3 million hectare) area on the state’s North Slope that is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the United States.

The comment period will last 60 days.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici, Editing by Franklin Paul)