In the months since President Biden approved the Willow drilling project, his administration has curtailed fossil fuel activities on millions of acres of public land and in federal waters.
The measures include protections for workers and funds for better weather prediction, but they are unlikely to satisfy activists who have pushed the president to do more to combat climate change.
Mr. Watt once declared that Interior Department policies over years had swung too far toward conservation under the influence of “environmental extremists.”