The House has voted in favor of rolling back environmental restrictions on drilling and mining in northern Alaska and Wyoming imposed during the Biden administration that Republicans claim have hindered fossil fuel development and energy dominance in both states.
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. Republicans argue that the Biden rule ended coal leasing in the area, harming domestic energy production and affordability and cutting jobs.
Wyoming is one of the top coal-producing states, accounting for nearly two-fifths of all U.S. coal production in 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“The BLM’s disastrous Buffalo RMP would cut off access to 40% of our nation’s coal,” Hageman said in October. “This clear violation of the law would devastate jobs, local economies, and end our ability to provide affordable, reliable energy.”
S.J. Res. 80 also passed in a 216-209 vote and now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for signing. Three Democrats voted in favor of the measure, while one Republican voted against.
This resolution passed in the Senate late last month and will nullify the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Integrated Activity Plan Record of Decision issued by the Bureau of Land Management under President Joe Biden.
The management plan was finalized in 2022 and was meant to block fossil fuel development from millions of acres in the region, which is also the largest tract of public land in the U.S.
Under Biden, BLM allowed roughly 11.8 million acres of the NPR-A to be open for oil and gas leasing, closing off development from 11 million acres both onshore and offshore.
NPR-A, a roughly 23 million-acre area in Alaska’s North Slope Borough, was first set aside by President Warren Harding in 1923 as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy. Jurisdiction of the land was transferred to the Interior Department in the 1970s, opening it up to oil and gas leasing.
While the NPR-A has been open to oil and gas development for decades, Republicans have repeatedly raised the criticism that only around 1.6 million acres have been leased in the region.
The measure is a part of the administration’s and GOP’s broader effort to fulfill Alaska’s energy potential, increasing oil and gas development in the state.
Republicans are also seeking to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas drilling, advancing legislation that would lift significant protections imposed under the Biden administration.
In a 217-209 vote, the House voted in favor of nullifying the Biden administration’s restrictions on oil and gas leasing in ANWR’s Coastal Plain. Three Democrats voted in favor of the resolution while one Republican voted against.
Congress first authorized drilling in ANWR in 2017, though little movement has been seen since. During his first administration, Trump approved nine lease sales in the region. The Biden administration ultimately suspended seven of these, while two were canceled by bidding companies.
Republicans have said that these environmentally driven restrictions blocked energy production on 1.16 million acres of land, threatening the state’s economy and broader U.S. energy independence.
The measure will still need to be passed in the Senate before heading to the president’s desk to be signed into law.
SENATE VOTERS TO UNDO BIDEN-ERA PRODUCTION CURBS IN NPR-A
All three measures were passed through the Congressional Review Act, a legislative process that allows the majority to bypass a filibuster and vote in a simple majority to undo a regulation.
Republicans have repeatedly used this process for months to undo numerous Biden-era regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing environmental protections, or accelerating the phase out of fossil fuels.
