The Trump administration has rolled back sweeping Biden-era restrictions that blocked oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) — reopening the door to domestic energy production across one of the largest undeveloped oil basins in the United States.
The reversal, announced Monday by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, rescinds the 2024 rule that restricted oil exploration across 13.3 million acres of the petroleum reserve — more than half of the 23-million-acre area. Under Biden’s rule, 10.6 million acres were placed off-limits entirely, and an additional three million acres were saddled with restrictive protections, frustrating energy producers and state leaders alike.
“The 2024 rule ignored [Congress’s] mandate, prioritizing obstruction over production and undermining our ability to harness domestic resources at a time when American energy independence has never been more critical,” Burgum stated.
The move is a direct repudiation of Biden’s energy agenda in Alaska. While the Biden administration gave initial approval to the Willow Project — an $8 billion oil development — it quickly pivoted under pressure from environmental groups, slapping new restrictions across vast tracts of Alaskan wilderness. The backlash came even as fuel prices remained elevated and concerns mounted over America’s reliance on foreign oil.
In tandem, the administration denied a key permit for a 211-mile industrial road needed to access critical copper deposits, effectively stalling mining and infrastructure projects tied to national security and clean energy supply chains.
The Trump team’s decision restores access to lands estimated to hold a mean of 895 million barrels of oil and 52.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the Institute for Energy Research — energy that has sat largely untapped under successive layers of regulation.
At the core of the rollback is a legal argument: that Biden’s restrictions exceeded statutory authority under the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976. According to the Department of the Interior, Biden’s rules added burdensome procedural requirements and imposed a near-ban on oil activity in designated “Special Areas” unless producers could prove virtually no environmental impact — a standard the agency now says is neither legally justified nor practical.
“These provisions... undermine the BLM’s obligation to carry out an effective and timely leasing program,” the Interior Department noted.
Alaska’s at-large Congressman Nick Begich praised the decision, calling it a restoration of Alaska’s right to self-determination.
“Thank you @SecretaryBurgum and @POTUS for your leadership and recognizing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential,” he wrote on X.
The broader political implications are clear. President Trump has long prioritized domestic energy dominance, cutting red tape to boost U.S. production in oil, gas, mining, and other resource sectors. Alaska, in particular, has been central to that vision, not only for its vast reserves but for its symbolic importance in the debate over conservation versus development.