Deb Haaland

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Key Figures

The Trump administration opened the entire 1.56-million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas leasing, overriding environmental protections that had limited drilling to specific areas. The move came despite a previous lease sale in 2021 that attracted zero qualifying bids from oil companies, suggesting limited commercial interest. Environmental groups and the Gwich'in Nation, whose lands border the refuge, immediately announced legal challenges.

The Biden Interior Department publishes a final rule protecting 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska from oil and gas development, maximizing protections for some of the most ecologically sensitive and biologically productive land in North America. The rule restores the "Integrated Activity Plan" protecting main habitats that were opened to drilling by the Trump administration. The reserve is home to polar bears, caribou, migratory birds, and Indigenous communities. Environmental groups call it the most notable public lands protection since the Clinton era. Combined with Biden's Chuckwalla and Sáttítla National Monument designations, Biden ultimately protects more than 700 million acres of US land and water during his term.

The Biden Interior Department publishes a final rule raising the royalty rate for oil and gas extraction on federal public lands from 12.5% to 16.67%, the first increase since the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920. The rule also increases minimum bids and fees for non-producing leases to reduce speculative land banking. The old 12.5% rate, unchanged for over a century, was among the lowest in the world and well below what private landowners or most other countries charge. The new rate brings federal royalties more in line with market rates and generates additional revenue for conservation and renewable energy programs under the Inflation Reduction Act. Oil industry groups challenge the rule in court.

The Biden administration approves the Willow oil project on Alaska's North Slope on March 13, 2023. Some Alaska Native leaders and regional corporations support the project for jobs and revenue, while other Native leaders and climate advocates oppose it because of environmental and subsistence concerns. The decision highlights conflict within and between Native communities over federal land, climate policy, and economic development. Opponents argue that frontline Indigenous communities bear disproportionate environmental burdens. Environmental decisions on Native lands often raise civil rights questions about sovereignty, consultation, health, and unequal exposure to harm.

President Biden signs proclamations restoring Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah, and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, reversing Trump-era reductions that had dramatically shrunk the monuments. Bears Ears is restored to its full 1.35 million acres, and Grand Staircase-Escalante returns to its 1.9 million acres. Tribal nations who fought for Bears Ears designation, Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Zuni Tribe, and the Ute Mountain Ute and Ute Indian tribes, celebrate at the signing ceremony. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland calls the restoration a historic recognition of Indigenous sovereignty.