Trump reopens Alaska Arctic coastal plain to oil leasing

Ari Natter, Bloomberg News on Oct 23, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is opening the entire coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas leasing, reversing a Biden administration decision that put the pristine wilderness area off limits.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced Thursday the agency was opening the 1.56-million-acre expanse of tundra on Alaska’s North Slope. It’s the latest move by the administration to boost domestic fossil fuel production and makes good on President Donald Trump’s pledge to resume leasing in the region.

“This land should and will be supporting responsible oil and gas leasing,” Burgum said during an event at the Interior Department’s headquarters in Washington on Thursday.

The refuge’s coastal plain is estimated to hold billions of barrels of crude. But many oil companies have been reluctant to target the area, given the high costs. Environmentalists and native Alaskans argue oil development in the region risks imperiling arctic foxes, polar bears and caribou.

“Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is reckless,” Bobby McEnaney, a director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. “The market has said no — banks and insurers won’t back it, lease sales flopped, and taxpayers are left holding the bag. Public lands must serve people, wildlife, and a livable climate — not host a fire sale for fossil fuel companies.”

During Trump’s first term, Congress lifted a 40-year-old ban on energy development in the refuge in 2017, mandating lease sales.

President Joe Biden suspended those sales and took steps to thwart oil development the region, canceling leases sold in 2021 and barring exploration in more than half of the nearby National Petroleum Reserve.

Not a single company opted to bid in two additional lease sales in the region mandated by Congress and held just days before President Joe Biden left office. Oil industry representatives and Alaska officials, however, complained the lease sale’s structure discouraged bidding from the start.