In Pristine Alaska Wild, the Drills Are Firing Up

The Trump administration has finalized plans to open the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to potential oil and gas drilling, renewing a long-simmering debate over whether to drill in one of the nation's environmental jewels. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the decision on Thursday that paves the way for future lease sales within the refuge's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain, an area that's considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich'in, per the AP. The plan fulfills pledges made by President Trump and congressional Republicans to reopen this portion of the refuge to development. Trump's bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, passed over the summer, called for at least four lease sales within the refuge over a 10-year period.

Burgum was joined in Washington, DC, by Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state's congressional delegation for this and other lands-related announcements, including the department's decision to restore oil and gas leases in the refuge that had been canceled by the prior administration. A federal judge in March said the Biden administration lacked authority to cancel the leases, which were held by a state corporation that was the major bidder in the first-ever lease sale for the refuge held at the end of Trump's first term.

Leaders in Indigenous Gwich'in communities near the refuge consider the coastal plain sacred, noting its importance to a caribou herd they rely upon, and they oppose drilling there. Leaders in Kaktovik, an Inupiaq community within the refuge, however, support drilling and consider responsible oil development to be key to their region's economic well-being. "It is encouraging to see decision-makers in Washington advancing policies that respect our voice and support Kaktovik's long-term success," Kaktovik Inupiat Corp. President Charles "CC" Lampe said in a statement.

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A second lease sale in the refuge, held near the end of President Biden's term, yielded no bidders, but critics of the sale argued it was too restrictive in scope. Meda DeWitt, Alaska senior manager with the Wilderness Society, said that Thursday's announcement shows the administration "is placing corporate interests above the lives, cultures, and spiritual responsibilities of the people whose survival depends on the ... caribou herd, the freedom to live from this land, and the health of the Arctic Refuge." More here.