(Reuters) -The Trump administration on Thursday announced a series of steps to open up Alaskan wilderness to energy and infrastructure development, including by resuming oil and gas leasing in the remote Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Interior Department said in a statement that it will reopen the full 1.5-million-acre (0.6-million-hectare) Coastal Plain of the ANWR to leasing, reversing moves by former President Joe Biden’s administration to restrict drilling in the area.

The department will also restore canceled oil and gas leases to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state agency that was among the few bidders at an auction of drilling rights in the ANWR held in the final days of President Donald Trump’s first administration.

The moves are aligned with Tr

See Full Page