The Trump administration plans to lift environmental protections on roughly half of the National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska’s North Slope, reopening the area to possible oil and gas drilling.

The new move would reverse actions taken during the Biden administration to restrict development in the 23 million-acre reserve.

The plans, announced Sunday in Utqiagvik and formally on Monday by the U.S. Department of the Interior , open a public comment period, with final action to come later. The plans were announced as three of the Trump administration’s top officials visit Alaska.

U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Lee Zeldin, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are in Alaska this week for a series of events, including a

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