Biden Slashes Millions of Acres Eligible for Oil Drilling in Alaska

An oil transit pipeline runs across the tundra to flow station at the Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska's North Slope. The Obama administration is blocking new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean, handing a victory to environmentalists who say industrial activity in the icy waters will harm marine mammals and exacerbate global warming. Al Grillo, File/AP Photo

The Biden administration is closing off almost half of the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA) from oil and gas drilling, overturning a Trump-era policy that would have allowed oil development on more than 80 percent of the reserve.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the Department of the Interior, announced the decision on April 25.