New Trump administration proposal aims to accelerate drilling amid Alaska oil industry’s revival
"It’s pretty extreme,” said one longtime Alaska environmental advocate.
As major oil companies eye new drilling on Alaska’s North Slope, the Trump administration is now working to accelerate their projects by streamlining environmental reviews on federal land.
It’s a move that could boost production amid what leaders describe as a "renaissance" of North Slope oil. But opponents call it an alarming escalation of the administration’s push to open new areas of Alaska to oil and gas development.
The new proposal was announced May 15 by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on a visit to Alaska.
It would change how regulators review and approve new oil projects in the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska, a federally managed area that’s roughly the size of the state of Indiana and encompasses tundra, wetlands and expansive caribou and bird habitat.
Historically, federal land managers have required companies to go through lengthy environmental reviews each time they propose a new project. The Trump administration now aims to create a blanket environmental approval to expedite projects.
The proposal comes at a time when the Trump administration is under pressure from spiking fuel prices and looking for ways to boost U.S. energy production.
But it’s drawing sharp criticism from environmental advocates who fear that it would fast-track projects without adequate assessments of their impacts, imperiling Arctic ecosystems home to caribou, migratory birds and other wildlife.
“It’s pretty extreme,” said Erik Grafe, a longtime Anchorage-based lawyer with Earthjustice, a national environmental law firm that regularly sues to block Arctic oil development.
Another attorney who’s fought new development on the North Slope, Suzanne Bostrom with the firm Trustees for Alaska, said in a prepared statement that the proposal appears to set up a new system where projects could be “rubber stamped.”
“The Arctic isn’t meant for cookie cutter exploitation,” she added. “These are treasured public lands that people depend on and that should be given the highest level of care and protection — the complete opposite of what’s proposed.”
The proposed change comes as the North Slope’s oil industry is picking up steam.
The state’s biggest new oil field in years — located on state and Alaska Native corporation land to the east of the federal petroleum reserve — just started commercial production. Another major project, ConocoPhillips’ Willow development, is set to come online in a few years.
And the industry is poised to expand west: Several of the world’s largest oil corporations, including ConocoPhillips, Shell and ExxonMobil, bid on new territory in the federal reserve in a huge lease sale earlier this year.
Max Graham
Oil fields currently occupy only the reserve’s northeastern corner. But experts say billions of barrels of oil remain in the ground, potentially in areas far from existing infrastructure.
The Trump administration’s permitting proposal came in response to a petition by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, a trade group known as AOGA. The group, whose members include the major companies operating in Alaska, submitted the request a few days before Burgum’s announcement.
“It’s about building a more stable, durable and predictable permitting framework,” said Steve Wackowski, AOGA’s president.
A decades-old law, the National Environmental Policy Act, requires federal regulators to assess the environmental impacts of large development proposals before taking action on them.
Currently, any oil project proposed on Alaska’s federal lands must undergo its own distinct environmental review.
Industry leaders have long argued that the process is too slow and repetitive — since oil projects often have similar designs and potential impacts. They say streamlining reviews could accelerate oil extraction and job creation without sacrificing environmental protections.
Under the new regulation, federal land managers would have two months to approve any proposed development in the petroleum reserve that meets specific standards.
AOGA’s petition lists more than 50 possible conditions, including consultation with local and regional Indigenous communities and accounting for wildlife habitat when designing infrastructure.
Opponents argue that a blanket analysis wouldn’t be able to account for the particulars of any one project and minimize impacts accordingly.
Wackowski disputed the idea that the proposal would amount to “rubber stamping.”
The impacts of development in the reserve have already been studied in an array of environmental assessments over the past 30 years, he said.
AOGA’s petition, he added, is the first step in a public process that “would evaluate what types of activities could appropriately fit within any streamlined framework and under what conditions.”
The regulatory change would apply only to projects in the petroleum reserve and to one federal agency, the Bureau of Land Management. Projects would still be subject to additional permitting requirements from other agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which reviews permit applications under the federal Clean Water Act.
The proposal is still in a preliminary review period and could change as the Trump administration studies it. Public comments are due by July 6.
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