The Bureau of Land Management announced earlier this week that it has finalized a new Integrated Activity Plan for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced earlier this week that it has finalized a new Integrated Activity Plan (IAP) for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A).
BLM said the new IAP includes important safeguards for wildlife and sensitive resources, while allowing for responsible oil and gas leasing across 18.6 million acres of the NPR-A. Safeguards include no surface occupancy, controlled surface use, timing limitations and provide for new and emerging technologies to access subsurface resources while maintaining important surface values, BLM noted.
Wed, 01/06/2021 - 9:03am
Interior Department leaders published their decision to open nearly 7 million more acres of the western North Slope to the oil and gas industry Jan. 4 while federal attorneys prepared to defend the agency’s leasing plan for the other side of the region in court later that day.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt signed the record of decision for the latest land-use plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which authorizes Bureau of Land Management Alaska officials to offer more than 18.5 million acres of the 23 million-acre federal parcel for bid in future oil and gas lease sales.
Formally known as the NPR-A Integrated Activity Plan, the management scheme marks another subtle but significant achievement by the Trump administration in its push to increase energy and mineral development on federal lands across the state.