***Update by Mary at 2:55 PM ET
Leslie wrote about the House passing legislation to repeal a Biden-era plan that prevented coal leasing in Buffalo, WY.
The Senate just passed the legislation. It heads to President Donald Trump. Leslie’s writing below has all the details!
***Leslie’s original report
Last week, the Trump administration announced that it would be moving to allow oil and gas drilling in Alaska, reversing the eco-activist and racialist policies enacted by Biden’s team that throttled the development of America’s energy resources.
The move reverses actions taken during the Biden administration to restrict development in half of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, 23 million acres of federal land in the North Slope. Despite having “petroleum” in its name, the expanse is some of the last remaining pristine wilderness in the country and contains some of the most important wildlife habitat in the Arctic.The administration said in June that it planned to open the reserve to drilling and mining; Thursday’s announcement was the final step. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said it would “unlock Alaska’s energy potential, create jobs for North Slope communities and strengthen American energy security.”It was the latest in a series of the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to expand fossil fuel production in the United States. Last month, the government finalized plans to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas drilling. In the coming days, the Interior Department is also expected to propose opening vast new stretches of federal waters to oil and gas development, including areas off the coast of California.
This week, the House of Representatives voted to overturn environmental restrictions on drilling and mining in both Alaska and Wyoming.
House Republicans advanced three resolutions of congressional disapproval in a series of votes Tuesday afternoon, starting with a 214-212 vote to pass a resolution that would undo restrictions blocking further coal leasing in Buffalo, Wyoming. One Republican voted against the resolution.Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) sponsored H.J. Res. 130, reversing a rule established by the Biden administration’s Bureau of Land Management. The rule determines which areas under the BLM’s Buffalo Field Office are eligible for additional coal leasing and which are not.The rule would prohibit new coal leasing in the 800,000 acres of surface lands and 4.7 million acres of subsurface federal mineral estate in Campbell, Johnson, and Sheridan Counties in north-central Wyoming. The administration at the time said its decision was intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.However, the resolution would overturn the rule as part of the administration’s effort to bolster the coal and other fossil fuel industries, while stymying clean energy sources.
In addition to the resolution impacting Wyoming, a second resolution terminated the Biden administration’s management plan for the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPR-A), which had blocked fossil fuel development on 11 million acres that were closed to oil and gas leasing. The third resolution reverses restrictions on oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Coastal Plain in Alaska. Congress originally authorized drilling in 2017, but the Biden administration suspended or canceled most of the leases.
Interestingly, three Democrats voted to scrap the Biden-era drilling restrictions in Alaska.
The bill, overwhelmingly backed by Republicans, also got support from three Democrats: Representatives Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, and Representative Jim Costa of California.
What is the current state of U.S. oil production? Booming!
U.S. oil pin 2025 is at record high levels, and our nation is now enjoying its position as the world’s top oil producer. Latest projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicate that America’s crude oil output is averaging roughly 13.5–13.6 million barrels per day, breaking previous records and surpassing all earlier forecasts for this decade.
As energy security ties into economic and national security, these are big wins for the nation.
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