Senator from Alaska urges Senate to disapprove 2022 NPRA management plan

A senator from Alaska told the Senate floor he will join Senator Dan Sullivan in backing Senate Joint Resolution 80, a measure to disapprove the Biden administration's 2022 integrated activity plan (IAP) for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA). The senator described the 2022 plan as an "unilateral" shift that curtails leasing and development across large portions of the reserve and said he would press colleagues to support the disapproval measure when it comes before the Senate.

The senator framed the NPRA as a statutorily designated area for "responsible energy development," saying the reserve comprises roughly 23,000,000 acres — "roughly the size of the state of Indiana" — and that federal law directs the Department of the Interior to pursue an expeditious competitive leasing program while protecting sensitive areas and subsistence uses. He said the prior 2020 management framework struck that balance by keeping most of the reserve available for potential leasing while deferring site-specific approvals to later NEPA review and permitting.

He contrasted the 2020 and 2022 plans with numeric figures he attributed to the Bureau of Land Management: under the 2020 plan, he said, 18,600,000 acres (about 82% of NPRA) were identified as potentially open for leasing, while the 2022 plan left 11,800,000 acres (about 52%) open and, he asserted, closed 8,300,000 acres to new infrastructure. He also stated that the 2022 approach "unilaterally cut off access to 6,800,000 acres" and criticized the administration's reliance on a Determination of NEPA Adequacy rather than conducting new environmental review.

The senator criticized what he described as a lack of public process and government-to-government consultation with North Slope leaders. He said the North Slope Trilateral ' the North Slope Borough, the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope (ICAS), and the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) ' had urged support for disapproval in a letter, arguing the 2022 plan "curtail[s] responsible development, undermine[s] congressional intent, and disregard[s] the well-being of the people who depend on these lands for both subsistence and livelihoods." The senator asked unanimous consent to insert the full letter into the congressional record; the request was entered "Without objection."

He also said the 2022 plan coincided with no NPRA lease sales during the prior administration, delays in projects such as the Willow Project, issuance of a management rule that he described as creating a presumption against new development, and interim management measures the senator said further limited access. He warned that oil and gas activity in the NPRA funds local services, saying revenue supports borough schools, emergency services and infrastructure and provides jobs for Inupiaq shareholders and residents.

The senator said he and Senator Sullivan will seek to disapprove the 2022 administrative action and urged his colleagues to support SJR 80 when the measure is before the Senate the following day. He then yielded the floor.

Notes on attribution: all quoted and paraphrased statements in this article are attributed to the single Senate speaker in the transcript and are labeled as claims or assertions the speaker made on the Senate floor. Where the speaker provided numeric counts (acreage totals), the article reports those figures as stated by the speaker rather than as independently verified facts.