Alaska Petroleum Reserve Further Opened to Oil, Gas Drilling

The Interior Department has finalized its plan to allow oil and gas drilling across a region of northern Alaska slightly smaller than the state of South Carolina—activity that could potentially cause deadly walrus stampedes.

The Bureau of Land Management’s Integrated Activity Plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska would allow oil and gas development across 18.6 million acres—about 7.6 million acres more than were available for drilling prior to the plan, the agency announced Monday. The plan was finalized Dec. 31.

The agency’s June final environmental review for the plan said the industrial activity the oil and gas drilling would cause ...