BLM finalizes pro-drilling management plan for Western Arctic
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is a vitally important area for Nuiqsut and other North Slope communities that depend on its diverse wildlife, including caribou, birds and fish.
Bob Wick / BLM
The new IAP largely mirrors a version implemented in 2020 during President Trump’s first term
Taking another step in the back-and-forth battle between presidential administrations, the federal Bureau of Land Management has finalized a new Integrated Activity Plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in the Western Arctic, opening more than 80 percent of the reserve to destructive oil and gas leasing and development. The new IAP largely mirrors a version implemented in 2020 during President Trump’s first term.
BLM’s action follows a move by Congress in October to rescind former President Biden’s 2022 IAP, which established science-based management of oil and gas activity in the Western Arctic and protected designated “Special Areas” as required under Sections 103 (b) and 104 (b) of the 1976 Naval Petroleum Reserve Production Act. The 2022 document was informed by years of public meetings, input and analysis, and its conservation provisions were critical to subsistence users and wildlife.
The Wilderness Society released the following statement from Alaska Senior Manager Matt Jackson in response to BLM’s action:
“This administration is abandoning balanced management of America’s largest tract of public land and catering to big oil companies at the expense of future generations of Alaskans who will need the Western Arctic’s clean air, safe water and thriving wildlife to sustain our ways of life.
“By implementing a management plan tailored to the desires of industry, the Trump administration it showing it does not understand or respect our rural communities. These actions are depriving local communities of the freedom to shape their own futures.”
