The Trump administration on Thursday finalized plans to open the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to potential oil and gas drilling, reigniting a long-running debate over whether to develop one of the nation’s prized environmental areas.
U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that the administration will move forward with opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s 1.5 million-acre coastal plain to future oil and gas lease sales — a region considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich’in. The move fulfills President Trump’s pledge, along with that of congressional Republicans, to reopen the area for potential development. Trump’s tax-and-spending package, passed this summer, requires at least four lease sales over 10 years. Burgum made the announcement in Washington, D.C., alongside Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state’s congressional delegation, which also celebrated the restoration of oil and gas leases in the refuge that had been canceled by the previous administration.
A federal judge ruled in March that the Biden administration lacked the authority to cancel the leases, which were held by a state corporation that emerged as the main bidder in the refuge’s first-ever lease sale at the end of Trump’s first term.
Gwich’in leaders near the refuge consider the coastal plain sacred because of its importance to the caribou herd they depend on and strongly oppose drilling. But leaders in Kaktovik, an Iñupiaq community within the refuge, support development and view responsible oil drilling as essential to their region’s economic future.
“It is encouraging to see decisionmakers in Washington advancing policies that respect our voice and support Kaktovik’s long term success,” Kaktovik Iñupiat Corp. President Charles “CC” Lampe said in a statement.
However, Meda DeWitt, Alaska senior manager with The Wilderness Society, said that with Thursday’s announcement, the administration “is placing corporate interests above the lives, cultures and spiritual responsibilities of the people whose survival depends on the Porcupine caribou herd, the freedom to live from this land and the health of the Arctic Refuge.”
The actions announced Thursday align with President Trump’s directives upon returning to office in January, including his push to accelerate construction of a road linking the communities of King Cove and Cold Bay. Burgum said the administration has completed a land-exchange agreement to build the road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. King Cove residents have long sought this connection to Cold Bay’s all-weather airport, calling it essential for emergency medical access. Gov. Dunleavy and Alaska’s congressional delegation also support the project, framing it as a critical measure for life and safety.
Conservationists vowed to challenge the agreement in court, and some tribal leaders fear the road will disrupt migratory birds they depend on. The refuge, located near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, contains internationally recognized habitat for migratory waterfowl, and past land-exchange proposals there have repeatedly sparked controversy and lawsuits. The Center for Biological Diversity said the new deal would trade about 500 acres of “ecologically irreplaceable wilderness” inside the refuge for up to 1,739 acres of King Cove Corp. land within its boundaries. Tribal leaders in Yup’ik communities farther north in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta also warn the road could harm the migratory birds central to their subsistence lifestyle.
“Along with the Native villages of Hooper Bay and Paimiut, we absolutely plan to challenge this decision in court,” said Cooper Freeman, the center’s Alaska director.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, told reporters she has pushed for King Cove’s land access throughout her career and has visited both the community and the refuge. She called the refuge a “literal bread basket” for waterfowl and said it’s in everyone’s interest to ensure the road is built with as little disruption as possible.
“I think it’s important to remember that nobody’s talking about a multi-lane paved road moving lots of big trucks back and forth,” she said. “It is still an 11-mile, one-lane, gravel, noncommercial-use road.”
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
