**Interior Department Retains Crucial Protections on 28 Million Acres of Alaska Public Lands, Blocking Trump-Era Drilling Plans**
In a significant move, the U.S. Department of the Interior has reinstated long-standing protections on 28 million acres of D-1 public lands in Alaska. This decision comes after years of scrutiny and community input, reversing a Trump-era bid to open these areas to oil and natural gas leasing.
The protection on these lands, which includes significant portions of Northwest, Southwest, Southcentral, and Southeast Alaska, was reaffirmed on August 27. This move is a direct response to the previous administration’s actions that were deemed unlawful for lacking comprehensive environmental assessments and adequate tribal consultation. The Biden administration promptly paused the plans and initiated an extensive environmental review, which was vital in evaluating the potential impacts on fish and wildlife habitats, subsistence resources, and Alaska Native communities.
The Interior Department emphasized that revoking these protections would have allowed millions of acres to be subjected to extractive development activities, including mining and oil drilling. Furthermore, it would have removed the federal subsistence priority from millions of acres of land, significantly affecting local communities who rely heavily on these lands for subsistence hunting and fishing.
Congress initially authorized these protections in 1971 under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). The D-1 lands, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a division of the Interior Department, are crucial for maintaining ecological balance and preserving cultural heritage.
To ensure the land remained safeguarded, the Interior Department conducted 19 community meetings and received over 15,000 public comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement. The overwhelming support from Alaska Native groups and environmental organizations underscored the importance of retaining these protections. The final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) from BLM indicated that lifting these protections could cause long-lasting negative impacts on wildlife, vegetation, and permafrost.
“This action comes in response to the previous administration’s unlawful decision to end the