WASHINGTON — Congress has nullified the Biden administration’s resource plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The measure passed the House Tuesday, largely along party lines. It passed the Senate three weeks ago and goes next to the president’s desk.
The action is the latest by Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration to erase President Biden’s environmental legacy and revert to what the first Trump administration achieved.
As Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation sees it, Biden’s plan for the NPR-A would’ve locked up about half the reserve to oil development.
Alaska Congressman Nick Begich says Congress is halting the resource-management whiplash by using the Congressional Review Act. It forbids reimposing a nullified rule.
“So a future administration can't come in and decide to do something similar without the express authorization of Congress," he said.
Development advocates say the Trump plan is more pragmatic and that regulatory certainty will attract investment.
House Democrats who opposed the change argued that the Biden plan protected wildlife species and the landscape of one of the least developed tracts in the federal inventory.
The House also passed Begich’s resolution nullifying the Biden administration’s 2024 restrictions on oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The resolution would reimpose the prior Trump administration’s leasing plan for the area. It's also a Congressional Review Act measure and goes next to the Senate.
