Anchorage, Alaska – Today, Rick Whitbeck, Alaska state director of Power The Future, issued the following statement on the Biden administration's decision to return to Obama-era regulations in the vast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska on the North Slope that prohibits potential oil and gas leasing on an additional 7 million acres of reserve:

"The next time the Biden Administration claims they are powerless to stop high gas prices, remember this decision. For generations, the people of Alaska have done their part to deliver affordable and reliable energy to our nation and the decision by the Interior Department not only hurts jobs and our economy but also provides another nail in the coffin of American energy independence. Alaska and America can do better."