Trump finalizes plan to open Arctic wildlife refuge to oil drilling
WASHINGTON — Overturning five decades of protections for the largest remaining stretch of wilderness in the United States, the administration of President Donald Trump on Monday finalized its plan to open up part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas development.
The decision sets the stage for what is expected to be a fierce legal battle over the fate of this vast, remote Alaska habitat. The Interior Department said it had completed its required reviews and would start preparing to auction off leases to companies interested in drilling inside the refuge’s coastal plain, which is believed to sit atop enough oil to fill billions of barrels but is prized by environmentalists for its pristine landscapes and wildlife.
While the agency has not yet set a date for the first auction, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said Monday, “I do believe there could be a lease sale by the end of the year.”
“President Trump’s leadership
brought more than three decades of inaction to an end,” Mr. Bernhardt told reporters in a conference call, adding that the plan was “carefully tailored” to minimize its impact on the surrounding environment. “This is no ordinary oil and gas program on public lands.”
Companies that bought leases could begin the process of exploring for oil and gas, although actual production would still require additional permitting and is unlikely to occur for at least a decade, if at all.
Drilling opponents are expected to file lawsuits to try to delay or block the leasing plan.
“We will continue to fight this at every turn, in the courts, in Congress and in the corporate boardrooms,” said Adam Kolton, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, in a statement.
The administration’s push to open up the refuge has been backed by Republicans in Congress and lawmakers in Alaska, who have argued that drilling could provide much-needed jobs and revenue for the state, where oil production has declined since the 1980s.
“Thousands of Alaskans are employed in our oil industry, and their livelihoods depend on the good-paying jobs created by our state’s reserves,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, in a statement.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge spans 19 million acres in northeastern Alaska. The fight over drilling centers on 1.5 million acres in the refuge’s coastal plain, known as the 1002 area, which is believed to contain the largest onshore reserves of oil in North America that remain untapped.
Opponents say that opening the refuge to drilling would be a step backward in an era when the world should be reducing fossil fuel use to address global warming and at a time when oil demand has plummeted amid the COVID-19 pandemic. They also say drilling could harm vulnerable wildlife in the area, including polar bears, which are already struggling because of climate change, and migrating herds of caribou that use the coastal plain as a calving area.
For decades, Democrats in Congress blocked proposals to open the refuge. But in 2017, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress included a section in a tax bill that authorized the Interior Department to establish a plan to sell leases in the coastal plain. Under the law, the agency must conduct at least two lease sales of 400,000 acres each by the end of 2024.
The Trump administration, for its part, has been pushing to approve the leasing plan as quickly as possible. Having drilling rights in the hands of oil companies before the end of the year could make it more difficult to stop development.