Tuesday's reversal of the consultation exemption also affects energy development elsewhere in the United States, where permitting agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and Minerals Management Service had been allowed to rely on their own internal reviews about potential impacts to endangered or threatened species.

Environmental groups applauded the move.

"Restoring these core protections of the Endangered Species Act signals a renewal of America's conservation ethic," John Kostyack, the National Wildlife Federation's executive director of wildlife conservation and global warming, said in a statement. "Permanently reinstating independent scientific review puts the teeth back into the law that saved the bald eagle and Yellowstone grizzly bear."

But a representative of Alaska's oil industry said withdrawal of the Bush administration regulation could eventually slow permits for development because the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service -- the agencies with authority over all Endangered Species Act listed populations -- are overburdened.

"Adding this additional huge layer of evaluation on them when they're already stretched thin is troubling and certainly will not do anything to speed up the necessary development of the nation's resources," said Marilyn Crockett, executive director of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. (Reporting by Yereth Rosen, editing by Richard Valdmanis and David Gregorio)