Interior creates exemption from case-by-case environmental review for winter oil exploration in Alaska’s petroleum reserve

The Interior Department has created a new exemption from case-by-case environmental review for wintertime oil and gas exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, according to a Federal Register notice filed October 8 and scheduled for publication October 9.

The notice adds a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act to the department’s procedures. Under it, the Bureau of Land Management can approve seismic surveys, applications for permit to drill and rights of way for winter exploration in the reserve without preparing an environmental assessment for each action. The exclusion takes effect on the date the notice is published. It is signed by Troy Finnegan, a deputy assistant secretary exercising the delegated authority of the assistant secretary for policy, management and budget.

The reserve covers about 23 million acres on Alaska’s North Slope and is administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The notice lists six categories of covered activity: vibroseis seismic surveys, temporary ice roads and snow routes, ice pads and camps with support equipment, water withdrawals and access, appraisal or delineation drilling and well testing and plugging, and helicopter-assisted summer cleanup of the prior winter’s drilling season.

Interior says in the notice that the bureau reviewed all winter exploration projects approved and carried out over the past 28 years, for which it prepared 47 environmental assessments. Each reached a finding of no significant impact or no new significant impact, and the notice says those findings were verified through post-implementation review. On that basis, the department concludes that these actions “normally do not significantly affect the quality of the human environment.”

The notice describes the case-by-case approach as inefficient and says seasonal restrictions and severe weather limit when companies can build and operate in the reserve. It cites two January 2025 executive orders, 14154 and 14153, which direct agencies to eliminate permitting delays and to maximize resource development in Alaska.

The notice also describes limits on the exclusion. Before applying it, the bureau must confirm that a proposed action is covered and check for extraordinary circumstances, meaning factors under which a normally excluded action may have a significant effect. The bureau must document each use with a checklist. Where an action may have a significant effect, the notice says the bureau will prepare an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement before authorizing it.

The exclusion follows other steps on the reserve. In a September 4 statement from Earthjustice, the group said the administration had released a proposed rule to speed permitting in the Western Arctic, following a May petition from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. Earthjustice said the rule would require Interior to approve projects as large as the Willow development within 60 days of an application, with no additional environmental study or public process, and that it opens a 60-day comment period.

Earthjustice also said a changed management plan opens 82 percent of the reserve to drilling and that more than 1 million acres were auctioned in a March 2026 lease sale. It said projects in areas including Teshekpuk Lake and the Colville River, long off limits, could be fast-tracked.

Erik Grafe, an Earthjustice attorney, described the September proposal as “a concerted attack by the Trump administration to greenlight oil and gas drilling in the Western Arctic.”

The notice lists Wayne Svejnoha, acting deputy state director for resources at the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska, as its contact. It says the supporting substantiation report is available on the bureau’s National NEPA Register under the number DOI-BLM-AK-0000-2026-0021-OTHER_NEPA.