With only a few days remaining in his presidency, Joe Biden took one more parting shot at the oil and gas industry — and Alaska Natives — Thursday. The Department of Interior recommended that approximately 3 million more acres in Alaska’s 23-million acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) region be protected from development. The announcement also provides direction for additional protections for impacts to “subsistence use,” which are areas used by Alaska Natives for traditional fishing and hunting. 

“This is just another slap in the face as Biden heads out the door. It was always about pushing his radical agenda and propping up his eco-elitist friends,” Larry Behrens, communications director for Power the Future, an energy advocacy group, told Just the News.

Indigenous voices

While presented as an expansion of protections for Alaska Native traditions, native communities in the North Slope have long been critical of the Biden-Harris administration’s attacks on oil and gas in the region, which they say provide needed economic development. Besides the jobs the industry provides, the tax revenues support infrastructure development in an area that previously had little. 

“The Biden administration is selectively citing Indigenous voices, while ignoring wide swaths of the North Slope Iñupiat, and fails to understand the implications of this announcement. Instead, it listened to voices that agreed with its policy agenda to justify its actions while ignoring the overwhelming majority of North Slope residents and locally elected leaders who opposed today’s decision,” Nagruk Harcharek, President of the Voice of Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE), said in a statement. 

The VOICE, which represents 21 communities and companies in the North Slope, spent years trying to gain an audience with Biden’s Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, only to have her continually ignore their requests. Finally in June, Haaland met with representatives of the VOICE. 

Kate Wolgemuth, program and government affairs manager, told Just the News at the time that the meeting was a “step forward” and VOICE members were cautiously optimistic that they would be included in Interior Department rulemaking. Thursday’s announcement suggests the meeting wasn’t so much a “step forward” than a token gesture. 

Earthjustice, which brought in $131 million in 2023, praised the Biden-Administration for further restricting development in the region. 

“We applaud the Biden administration. It followed the science that clearly shows that these areas’ irreplaceable values require maximum protection against harm from oil drilling. This is a model of inclusive, evidence-based land management and a win for wildlife and people,” Earthjustice attorney Erik Grafe said in a statement. 

"The last gasp of a failed administration"

Alaska’s Republican senators, however, didn’t mince words in their reaction to the Biden-Harris administration’s decision. In a statement, Sen. Dan Sullivan called it “the last gasp of a failed administration trying to crush Alaska and silence the voices of the Inupiat people who actually live on the North Slope.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a post on X that the administration “willfully ignored federal law” in order to turn the NPR-A into a “de facto federal wilderness.” 

“The report and memorandum released today continue the administration’s shameful pattern of erasing most Alaska Native voices on the North Slope—pretending they do not exist, and that their views do not matter,” Murkowski wrote. She called for the rules to be immediately repealed, noting that Trump assumes office on Monday. 

Acting Deputy Interior Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis held a news teleconference on the announcement and remarked that the Trump administration would likely take the Bureau of Land Management, which operates under the Department of the Interior, in a different direction, but stood by the Biden-Harris administration’s recommendations. 

“We know we’re in these seats for a few more days, and the next team may have a different perspective on how we manage public lands, including in the Western Arctic, but I think really we all have to agree that we must undertake activities in this incredible area with due consideration as to how they may impact subsistence resources that we are today identifying as a significant resource value,” Daniel-Davis said, the Alaska Beacon reported. 

Alaska’s landlord

The Department of the Interior oversees 60% of Alaska’s territory — 222 million acres, more than twice the total area of California. Trump nominated North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to replace Haaland. During Burgum’s confirmation hearing on Thursday, Murkowski explained that this fact gives the federal government a lot of control over Alaska. 

“It doesn't do my heart any good to often times refer to the Secretary of Interior as Alaska's landlord, but we pretty much have to go to the interior to ask for permission to do anything,” Murkowski said. 

Burgum said he viewed Alaska as one of America’s biggest assets, and he looked forward to working with Murkowski on issues impacting the state. 

Trump is expected to sign up to 100 executive orders overturning many of the Biden-Harris administration’s actions. Though it’s not certain any of those will overturn Biden’s actions restricting oil and gas development in Alaska, Harcharek with the VOICE expects better communication with the incoming administration. 

“It is deeply insulting that our lands, communities, and culture continue to be treated as the outgoing Biden administration’s pet legacy project — especially after voters in our region and around the country resoundingly rejected the federal government’s policy agenda…. We look forward to building a more collaborative relationship, characterized by mutual respect, with the Trump-Vance administration following its inauguration next week,” Harcharek said.