US Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed an order Thursday that authorized a new oil and gas leasing program that incorporates areas of California and Alaska.

The Trump administration’s Oil and Gas leasing program, authorized by Burgum, replaces a Biden-era oil and gas leasing program. The former program “withdrew historically large areas of the Outer Continental Shelf from being considered for oil or natural gas leasing, including for exploration, development, and production.”

The proposal calls for “ 34 potential offshore lease sales across 21 of 27 existing Outer Continental Shelf planning areas, covering approximately 1.27 billion acres,” said Burgum in a press release . “This includes 21 areas off the coast of Alaska, seven in the Gulf of America [Gulf of M

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