The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Dec. 22 reversed Biden-era protections of areas in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) and greater sage grouse habitats in the intermountain west to allow expanded oil and gas leasing and development.
BLM rescinded federal rules that sought to block from future development about 18 million acres of the 23-million acre petroleum reserve to safeguard key habitats of caribou, migrating birds, and other species. The state of Alaska opposed the restriction.
In 2024, the Biden administration restricted future leasing by designating “special” areas within the NPR-A in which development would threaten wildlife. The Biden-era rules also required the Interior Department to regularly evaluate whether additional special areas were necessary to protect habitat.
BLM said the current action restores NPR-A’s core purpose as a strategic domestic energy supply and advances the Trump administration’s efforts to expand US energy production.
“The plan approved today gives us a clear framework and needed certainty to harness the incredible potential of the reserve,” BLM Alaska State Director Kevin Pendergast said in a news release. “We look forward to continuing to work with Alaskans, industry, and local partners as we move decisively into the next phase of leasing and development.”
The final rule is slated for publication by end 2025. BLM is preparing to hold a winter 2026 NPR-A lease sale, the first of five directed under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July. The upcoming sale will mark the first Alaskan lease sale since 2019.
In the West, BLM relaxed some Biden-era restrictions on oil and gas development in a new plan for managing the habitat of the increasingly imperiled greater sage grouse. The revised plans ease BLM’s protections on about 50 million acres of sagebrush in 77 resource management areas across ten western states (California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming).
The Greater Sage-Grouse is not federally listed as endangered or threatened in the US, but the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in the early 2010s said a listing was "warranted but precluded" due to dramatic population declines—over 80% in the past 60 years—from habitat loss. Species numbers have continued to drop despite programs by the federal and state government, conservation groups, and some landowners to save the iconic bird.
BLM said the plan addresses threats to the birds’ habitat while balancing the government’s ability to manage public lands for oil and gas development, with input from states.
The Center for Biological Diversity said it will sue the administration over the changes. “Trump’s reckless actions will speed the extinction of greater sage grouse by allowing unfettered fossil fuel extraction and other destructive development across tens of millions of acres of public lands,” Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a release.
