Once again, the Trump administration is opening up Alaska for oil and gas leasing contracts. And just like before, it remains to be seen if any oil companies will show up for the auction.
A judge’s ruling in March 2025 vacated a termination order from the Department of the Interior (DOI), making the possibility of drilling for arctic oil in refuges legal again. On October 23, 2025, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced the plans to once again offer oil drilling and gas drilling leases in the over 1.5 million acres that make up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain (ANWR) in the state of Alaska. Burgum also announced deals to build roads through the Alaskan public lands to allow access for drilling companies and to reach a proposed mine in Alaska’s North Slope, along with restoring seven leases that had been canceled during the Biden administration.
The federal government is likely to face a blizzard of lawsuits over the plan from Alaskan natives like the Gwich’in Steering Committee and nonprofit environmental groups that include the Alaska Wilderness League and Defenders of Wildlife. It’s also facing the very real possibility that the gas and oil development companies that passed on the original auctions will remain leery and continue to stay away.
The Caribou and Polar Bears Would Like a Word, Please
There are not many expanses of unspoiled land left in the United States. The ANWR was created in 1980 and protected by President Jimmy Carter’s Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. There are no roads, heavily used trails, or facilities of any type within ANWR’s borders, which run along the Beaufort Sea in the northeastern corner of Alaska. In addition to being the home to massive Porcupine Caribou herds (named after the nearby Porcupine River) and the destination for millions of migratory birds, the ANWR is a popular breeding ground for polar bears, who have lost much of their previous territory to climate change and the ensuing reduction in sea ice.
Environmental impact statements warn that allowing surveying and drilling for fossil fuels in the ANWR and other reserves would be disastrous for the ecosystem, which supports both animals and Alaska native villages. The DOI’s decision includes a deal with the King Cove Corporation, a tribal organization, to swap land within the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge (INWR) to gain right-of-way for a gravel road to be built. Lawsuits are expected to be filed in opposition to this proposal as well.
It’s Drill-Ja Vu All Over Again
If all of this sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because President Trump also tried this during his first term. In 2017, a provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act opened the area up for drilling bids on the natural resources. The attempted lease sale of drilling rights in the Arctic refuge featured two auctions that took place during the waning days of the first Trump administration in 2021, but the results fell far short of what the White House had been hoping for.
Oil and gas companies didn't bother bidding in either of the auctions, citing the tremendous expected expenses due to a lack of infrastructure and the fallout from a likely public relations disaster. Many major banks also announced they wouldn’t finance oil and gas development in the ANWR, further undermining interest in the auctions.
Seven leases went to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), an investment bank owned by the state. The sales brought in less than 1% of what the Trump administration had predicted. President Joe Biden later issued an executive order canceling the AIDEA deals, but a district judge ruled the DOI had done so without Congressional approval and vacated the order.
The DOI seems confident that an auction to be held later this winter will garner greater interest, but neither energy companies nor banks have announced that they plan to attend so far. Since there hasn’t been much surveying done, there are only extremely rough estimates on how much oil and natural gas might be under the ANWR. Given the potentially high costs and looming difficulty involved in setting up drilling operations, the critters in Alaska may not have to deal with noisy and messy neighbors anytime in the near future.
Related Resources
- What Is Environmental Law? (FindLaw's Learn About the Law)
- Federal Civil Rights Offices (FindLaw’s Enforcing Your Civil Rights)
- What Is an Injunction? When Can You Get One? (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
