Interior’s Repeal of the NPR-A Protections Threatens the Western Arctic

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of the Interior rescinded the 2024 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rule governing the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPR-A), dismantling essential safeguards for the single-largest ecologically intact landscape in the United States. The 2024 rule clarified BLM’s legal obligation to protect critical habitat for polar bears, caribou, and migratory birds within the reserve. Today’s action abandons that framework and clears the way for aggressive industrial expansion across 23 million acres of public lands.

Following is reaction from Bobby McEnaney, director of land conservation at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):

“This rollback is nothing more than a giveaway to the oil and gas industry. Rescinding this rule disregards the Interior Department’s fundamental obligation to manage the reserve for its environmental and cultural values. Weakening protections is reckless, and it threatens to erase the very landscapes Congress sought to safeguard. Where others see the most ecologically intact landscape in the United States, the Interior Department sees another American treasure poised for ruination.”

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).