"The Interior Department will soon publish a “categorical exclusion” that will rubber stamp oil and gas development in Alaska’s remote National Petroleum Reserve."
"On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order singling out the state of Alaska and its abundant stores of oil, gas and minerals. “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential” called for expanding oil and gas development across Alaska’s North Slope, including some of the largest tracts of public land in North America.
The administration wanted to reverse regulations and new protections put in place during the previous administration — “punitive restrictions,” according to Trump — and streamline the permitting and review process for new projects, particularly in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve (NPRA).
Now, according to two sources familiar with the process and documents reviewed by High Country News and Public Domain, Trump and his team are following through on their promise to fast-track drilling in the NPRA by allowing new winter exploration and drilling to move forward without any kind of environmental review. The Department of the Interior is set to publish a “categorical exclusion” to the National Environmental Policy Act that would make it easier for the oil and gas industry to conduct seismic surveys, obtain rights of way and drill new exploration wells in the NPRA, an area that has become increasingly attractive to industry."
Adam Federman reports for Pubblic Domain August 26, 2026, co-published with High Country News.
