Biden-Harris Admin Bars Oil Drilling on 28 Million Acres of Public Lands, Reversing Trump Actions
28th August 2024
The Biden-Harris administration finalized a decision to block oil and gas development across 28 million acres of public lands in Alaska, reversing a slate of actions taken in the final days of the Trump administration.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland released a statement Tuesday, confirming that she would formally revoke five public land orders that the agency’s then-secretary David Bernhardt signed in January 2021. Those orders removed decades-old restrictions on the massive area, instead returning it to federal multiple-use status and, as a result, allowing the government to open the land up for uses such as recreation, grazing, timber harvesting, mining, and energy development.
The restrictions ultimately preserved in the Interior Department’s announcement date back to the 1970s and lock the land up for the foreseeable future. Because the Trump administration’s January 2021 actions would have reopened the land, Haaland’s actions effectively serve as a land withdrawal and are part of the current administration’s broader climate agenda cracking down on oil and gas development.