Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
Credit: Gage Skidmore/flickr

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke issued a directive aimed at spurring oil and natural gas development in Alaska, including a move to assess just how much crude might be lurking under the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Zinke’s order, signed during a visit to Anchorage, also compels a rewrite of a 2013 plan that limited oil and natural gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. The move responds to complaints from oil companies and state officials that the Obama administration was too restrictive, blocking drilling in promising areas while hampering their ability to build pipelines across the 23-million-acre reserve.

“This is land that was set up with the sole intention of oil and gas production; however, years of politics over policy put roughly half of the NPR-A off-limits,” Zinke said in a statement announcing the move. “Using this land for its original intent will create good-paying jobs and revenue.”

Unlike the petroleum reserve, which was specifically designated for energy development, Congress established the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 1980 to […]