JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Trump administration finalized plans Thursday 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 country’s environmental jewels.
U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the decision Thursday, paving the way for future lease sales within the refuge’s 1.5 million acres (631,309 hectares) coastal plain, an area considered sacred by the Gwich’in indigenous people. The plan fulfills promises by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to reopen this portion of the preserve to possible development. Trump’s tax relief and spending cuts bill, passed over the summer, called for at least four lease sales within the refuge over 10 years.
Burgum was joined in Washington, D.C. by Republican Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and the state’s congressional delegation for this and other land-related announcements, including the department’s decision to reinstate oil and gas leases in the refuge that had been terminated by the previous administration.
A federal judge in March said the Biden administration did not have the authority to terminate leases held by a state-owned company that was the leading bidder in the refuge’s first lease sale at the end of Trump’s first term.
Leaders of the Gwich’in indigenous communities near the refuge view the coastal plain as sacred, citing the importance of the caribou herd on which they depend and opposing drilling there. Leaders of Kaktovik, an Iñupiaq community within the reserve, support drilling and view responsible oil production as key to their region’s economic well-being.
“It is encouraging to see policymakers in Washington advancing policies that respect our voice and support the long-term success of Kaktovik,” Charles “CC” Lamp, president of Kaktovik Iñupiat Corp., said in a statement.
A second lease sale at the refuge, held near the end of President Joe Biden’s term, produced no bidders, but critics of the sale argued that the scope was too restrictive.
Meda DeWitt, Alaska senior manager at The Wilderness Society, said that with Thursday’s announcement, the government is “putting corporate interests ahead of the lives, culture and spiritual responsibilities of the people whose survival depends on the Porcupine caribou herd, the freedom to live in this land and the health of the Arctic Sanctuary.”
The measures outlined Thursday are consistent with those outlined by Trump when he returned to office in January. This included calls to speed up construction of a road connecting the communities of King Cove and Cold Bay.
Burgum announced on Thursday the conclusion of a land swap agreement aimed at building the road that will pass through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. King Cove residents have long sought a land connection via the refuge to the all-weather airport in Cold Bay, seeing it as crucial to accessing emergency medical care. Dunleavy and the congressional delegation have supported the effort, calling it a matter of life and safety.
Conservationists promised a legal challenge to the deal as some tribal leaders feared a road would drive away the migratory birds they rely on. The protected area near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula is home to internationally recognized migratory waterfowl habitat. Previous land swap proposals have been met with controversy and litigation.
The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, said the latest land deal would trade about 500 acres (202 hectares) of “ecologically irreplaceable wilderness land” within the refuge in exchange for up to 1,739 acres (703.7 hectares) of King Cove Corp. land. exchange outside the protected area. Tribal leaders in some communities farther north, in Yup’ik communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region, have expressed concerns that building a road would harm migratory birds that are crucial to their way of life.
“Along with the Native villages of Hooper Bay and Paimiut, we fully plan to challenge this decision in court,” said Cooper Freeman, the center’s Alaska director.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, told reporters she has fought for land access for King Cove throughout her time in office and has been in both the community and the refuge. She called the refuge a “literal breadbasket” for many waterfowl and said it was in everyone’s best interest to ensure a road was built with minimal disruption.
“I think it’s important to remember that no one is talking about a multi-lane, paved road with a lot of big trucks going back and forth on it,” she said. “It is still an 11-mile, single-lane gravel road that is not used commercially.”
