Interior Department officials are vowing anew to step up oil and gas exploration and development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) and the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, lifting legal barriers to exploit the state’s energy potential.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said he was following up on the President Donal Trump’s recent executive order to allow for reopening up to 82% of the NPR-A for development in some 23.4 million acres of the reserve. His plan also would make the entire 1.56 million-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge available for oil and gas leasing.
That message on March 20 from Burgum drew quick kudos from Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Rep. Nick Begich, all R-Alaska, who heralded the prospect of removing obstacles to mineral resource development.
“Wonderful news for Alaska,” Murkowski said. “These are the first steps to restoring reasonable access to our federal lands and the federal government fulfilling the terms of our statehood compact from nearly 70 years ago – all achieved by simply partnering with Alaskans and following the law.”
This effort will “put Alaska back where it belongs – not just on the map, but right at the heart of our nation’s resource policies,” she said.
“Great news for our state and once again, proves that we have a partner in progress in this administration,” Sullivan said. “Opening the ANWR Coastal Plain and the NPR-A to responsible resource development has been a longtime goal for Alaska’s congressional delegation, Republican presidential administrations, and leaders in Alaska.”
Sullivan thanked Trump and Burgum “for fulfilling their commitment to unleash our state and help us realize a future of wealth, sustainable private sector economic growth, and good-paying jobs for our working families.”
Sullivan also applauded the lifting of land withdrawals along the Dalton Highway Corridor.
Begich cited the Interior Department’s decision as “a major step toward securing Alaska’s place at the forefront of America’s energy future.” Begich said he would work with Congress to ensure “that no future administration can stall the progress that is vital to Alaska’s prosperity.”
Mineral exploration and development on the Coastal Plain has for years been challenged by the Gwich’in people, who have a deep cultural connection with the Porcupine caribou herd. The herd, estimated to include some 218,000 animals, is the largest population of barren-ground caribou in North America. To the Gwich’in, these calving grounds are known as “Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit” – or “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins.”
In a statement released on March 21, Kristen Moreland, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, said any threats to the caribou are a direct threat to the Gwich’in way of life, and vowed to defend the calving grounds from any threats from oil and gas development.
“Our Gwich’in people stand side by side with all Alaska Native communities and our allies that are opposed to extractive and destructive industry on sacred land,” she said. “We will fight this.”
Carole Holley, managing attorney at the Alaska regional office for Earthjustice – an environmental law group – said that Burgum’s announcement was nothing surprising. Plans to auction off public lands in the Arctic for oil and gas drilling were spelled out long ago in Project 2025, and orders from the Trump administration only confirm those intentions.
“Expanding oil drilling across public lands in the Arctic is risky, harmful to the health and well-being of people who reside nearby, devastating to wildlife, and bad for the climate,” she said.
An environmental lawsuit filed by Earthjustice in January against the Trump administration aims to protect millions of acres of public lands from oil and gas leasing.
“The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is cherished internationally for its ecological value and held to be a sacred place by neighboring Gwich’in communities – this is no place to drill for oil,” said Erik Grafe, an attorney at Earthjustice who lives in Anchorage.
When the latest oil and gas lease sale for ANWR was held in January no bids were received.
Interior Department officials under former President Joe Biden commented on Jan. 8 that they had followed the law by holding the lease sale.
“The lack of interest from oil companies in development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge reflects what we and they have known all along – there are some places too special and sacred to put at risk with oil and gas drilling. This proposal was misguided in 2017, and it’s misguided now,” said Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis. “The BLM has followed the law and held two lease sales that have exposed the false promises made in the Tax Act. The oil and gas industry is sitting on millions of acres of undeveloped leases elsewhere; we’d suggest that’s a prudent place to start, rather than engage further in speculative leasing in one of the most spectacular places in the world.”
Earthjustice has two ongoing lawsuits challenging oil and gas decisions in the NPR-A. Both are waiting on court decisions.
One, currently at the Ninth Circuit appeals court, challenges the government’s approval of the massive Willow oil-drilling project. The other, at the Alaska district court level, challenges the environmental analysis the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) relies on for leasing public lands in the Western Arctic for oil and gas drilling.
In the Arctic Refuge, Earthjustice has a case challenging the oil and gas drilling program Trump adopted during his first term. That case, at the Alaska district court, is on hold pending more information about what the current Trump administration wants to do in the refuge.
The NPR-A, managed by the BLM, borders the Chukchi Sea to the west and the Beaufort Sea to the north. The NPR-A was originally established in 1923 as a petroleum reserve for the U.S. Navy, then transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1976.
ANWR is the nation’s largest national wildlife refuge, bordering Canada to the east and the Beaufort Sea to the north. It was established in 1960 as a national wildlife refuge under the Department of the Interior.
