by Thomas Catenacci at The Washington Free Beacon
The Trump administration is reopening oil and gas leasing across hundreds of millions of acres of federal lands and waters that were locked up by the Biden administration.
In a series of orders Monday evening, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum revoked Biden-era actions that blocked drilling across 625 million acres of federal waters nationwide—an area that is equivalent in size to a third of the continental United States—in the 19-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and in the state’s 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve.
The actions, while expected, signal an abrupt change in how the Interior Department will approach oil and gas leasing issues during the Trump administration. Under Biden-era interior secretary Deb Haaland’s leadership, the agency pursued an aggressive climate strategy, severely restricting oil and gas drilling and mining while expanding green energy production on public lands and waters.
“We are committed to working collaboratively to unlock America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development to make life more affordable for every American family while showing the world the power of America’s natural resources and innovation,” Burgum said in a statement.
Burgum unveiled a six-pillar plan to implement
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