Outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed a directive that places 28 percent of the “estimated economically recoverable oil” in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska off-limits. The 22.8-million acre reserve in Alaska’s North Slope has been protected as an oil resource for the United States since 1923.
Salazar signed the Record of Decision (ROD) on Feb. 21, marking the first time a plan has been implemented to regulate all of the reserve, including the decision to “protect” some of the land for Native Alaskans and wildlife.
“As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to continue to expand domestic energy production, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today signed the Record of Decision (ROD) for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A),” the announcement says. “The final action allows for the development of 72 percent of the estimated economically recoverable oil in the nearly 23-million-acre Reserve, while protecting the vital subsistence resources of Alaska Natives and the habitat of world-class wildlife populations.”
The other 28 percent of the estimated economically recoverable oil would not be open for development.
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