Executive Order 13754: Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience
President: Barack Obama
Established a Northern Bering Sea resilience area, tribal advisory role and offshore protections; its 2021 reinstatement was express.
Status: Under review. Sources: EO 13990 · EO 14148 · EO 14153 · DOI Secretarial Order 3418, February 3, 2025.
Is Executive Order 13754 still in effect? Its current effect remains under review. Executive Order 13990 expressly reinstated it on January 20, 2021; Executive Order 14148 revoked that reinstating order on January 20, 2025 without expressly naming Executive Order 13754. The cited primary sources do not settle the continuing effect of all its provisions.
What does Executive Order 13754 do?
EO 13754 established the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area and directed federal agencies to consider local and Alaska Native knowledge in decisions about the region. EO 13795 revoked it in 2017. EO 13990 expressly reinstated EO 13754 in its original form in 2021, including offshore withdrawals. EO 14148 revoked EO 13990 in 2025, but did not expressly revoke EO 13754. The effect of later offshore and Alaska policy on particular protections or agency practice requires a current check; it should not be described simply as ended.
What the original order changed—and what it did not
The 2016 text combined separate tools. Section 3 withdrew the Norton Basin planning area and specified St. Matthew-Hall lease blocks from future oil/gas leasing without a stated expiration, but expressly preserved rights under existing leases. The broader resilience area was not identical to those withdrawn leasing areas. Sections 4–6 added federal coordination and tribal input; the advisory council’s recommendations operated through existing agency authorities rather than replacing them. Original sections 2–6 and withdrawal limits.
Shipping and fishing provisions also had different functions. The Coast Guard had an explicit December 30, 2016 preliminary-findings deadline and an instruction to submit proposed international routes by 2018. The Task Force had six-month and nine-month instructions for the tribal council and pollution recommendations. Those were original historical clocks; this guide does not infer that reinstatement automatically restarted them. NOAA’s section 10 task concerned maintaining an existing non-pelagic trawl prohibition, not imposing a new ban on all commercial or subsistence fishing. Original sections 5 and 7–10.
There is a concrete later shipping record, but it does not resolve the status of the entire order. The Coast Guard announced the joint U.S.–Russia routing proposal on January 25, 2018 and IMO approval on May 25, with a December 1, 2018 effective date. Its release described six two-way routes and six precautionary areas as voluntary and said they did not limit commercial fishing or subsistence activities. It traced the proposal to a port-access study and a long consultation process. These steps occurred after the 2017 revocation, so they should not be presented as proof that every EO 13754 duty then remained in effect. Coast Guard proposal announcement; Approval, scope and effective date.
The later policy instruments need equally careful reading. EO 14153 directs lawful agency changes concerning Alaska; Secretarial Order 3418 directs Interior review and action plans for implementing energy policy. A Secretarial Order is not a presidential executive order. Neither a review instruction nor proof of a particular shipping measure, by itself, establishes the present legal effect of every reinstated provision of EO 13754. The existing status caveat above therefore remains unchanged. EO 14153 operative directions; SO 3418, sections 4–7.
Before and after
Before the order
Federal agencies had no resilience area or advisory mechanism under this order.
After the order
The framework was revoked in 2017 and expressly reinstated in 2021. Subsequent policy changes require checking against current agency and court records.
Who had to do what
| Agency / office | Action | Timing / position |
|---|---|---|
| Federal agencies | Consider regional resilience and consult | Subject to later policy and agency action |
| Tribal advisory group | Provide recommendations | Current operation not verified |
| Interior and other agencies | Apply specified offshore withdrawals | Current scope needs verification |
| Interior Department office serving as co-chair | Co-chair the Bering Task Force with NOAA and the Coast Guard and coordinate the section 4 work within existing authority. | Original section 4; no separately specified co-chair deadline. |
| National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) | Co-chair the Task Force; coordinate with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council on maintaining existing commercial non-pelagic trawl prohibitions. | Original sections 4 and 10; no new numerical deadline for those continuing functions. |
| U.S. Coast Guard | Co-chair the Task Force; address the Bering Sea port-access study/routing and traditional knowledge; publish preliminary findings; promptly pursue contemplated designation rulemaking after study completion; coordinate international routing proposals; update relevant spill-response plans with agencies and Alaska. | Original sections 4, 8 and 9: preliminary findings by December 30, 2016; proposed routing measures to IMO by 2018; prompt post-study rulemaking; no separate numerical spill-plan deadline. These are historical instructions, not newly restarted clocks. |
| Department of State | Supply a senior Task Force representative and coordinate as appropriate with the Coast Guard and other coastal nations on proposed routing measures. | Original sections 4(b)(i) and 8(e); no separate State deadline beyond the shared routing context. |
| Department of Defense | Supply a designated senior-level Bering Task Force representative. | Original section 4(b)(ii); participation role, no independent report deadline. |
| Department of Transportation | Supply a designated senior-level Bering Task Force representative. | Original section 4(b)(iii); no separate numerical deadline. |
| Environmental Protection Agency | Supply a designated senior-level Bering Task Force representative. | Original section 4(b)(iv); no separate numerical deadline. |
| U.S. Army Corps of Engineers | Supply a designated senior-level Bering Task Force representative. | Original section 4(b)(v); no separate numerical deadline. |
| U.S. Arctic Research Commission | Supply a designated senior-level Bering Task Force representative. | Original section 4(b)(vi); no separate numerical deadline. |
| National Science Foundation | Supply a designated senior-level Bering Task Force representative. | Original section 4(b)(vii); no separate numerical deadline. |
| Bering Task Force | Coordinate agencies/research and consultation; consider additional actions/shipping recommendations; establish the tribal advisory council after considering tribal nominations; recommend pollution/discharge/noise measures to the AESC. | Original sections 4–5 and 7: council within six months; pollution recommendations within nine months of the order. Establishing an advisory process is not transferring statutory decision authority. |
| Bering Intergovernmental Tribal Advisory Council | Provide input/recommendations on activities and policies affecting the region and adopt procedures; the order says it should include 9–11 elected tribal officials or designees. | Original section 5; no independent numerical recommendation deadline or proof of current operation. |
| Arctic Executive Steering Committee (AESC) | Parent coordination body and recipient of Task Force recommendations, including pollution recommendations. | Original sections 4 and 7; recipient role, not a separate new deadline assigned to every AESC member. |
| North Pacific Fishery Management Council | NOAA’s named coordination partner for maintaining existing non-pelagic trawl protections consistently with law. | Original section 10; no separate numerical deadline. |
| All agencies acting in the region | Coordinate relevant authority, attend to tribal needs/knowledge and the ecosystem, and consider applicable advisory-council information through existing lawful processes. | Original sections 2 and 6; no numerical clock and no transfer of every decision to the Council. |
| State of Alaska | Named coordination partner for federal regional decisions, Task Force work and Coast Guard spill-response-plan updates. | Original sections 2, 4(c)(v) and 9; no independent federal deadline imposed on the State. |
What happened next
EO 13754 established the area and related directives.
EO 13795 revoked EO 13754.
Coast Guard announced the joint routing proposal, describing voluntary routes and no limitation on fishing or subsistence activities. Official source.
Coast Guard announced IMO approval of six two-way routes and six precautionary areas, with a December 1, 2018 effective date. This shipping record does not settle the whole order’s status. Official source.
EO 13990 expressly reinstated EO 13754 in original form.
EO 14148 revoked EO 13990 but did not name EO 13754.
Interior issued SO 3418 on energy-policy implementation and action plans. It is a departmental instrument, not an express presidential disposition of every EO 13754 provision. Official source.
Legal and source detail
How it works legally
The 2021 reinstatement was express, not an assumed result of revoking EO 13795. EO 14148 does not itself state that EO 13754 is revoked. Offshore withdrawals and agency actions must be checked against current law and subsequent actions.
Sources by type
If a source is unavailable, first check the cited publisher or another official repository. The cited publisher remains the authority.
Primary and official sources
Orders, laws, court records and official implementation material.
How we checked this
Last checked against the sources above on September 23, 2026. How we research →