The Trump administration announced Monday it is seeking suggestions for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge sites to auction off for oil development, a key step toward a new lease sale in a place that has been the subject of a decades-long environmental debate.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management released the official call for nominations, which is scheduled to be published on Tuesday in the Federal Register. There is a 30-day public comment period.
The planned lease sale for the refuge’s coastal plain is the first of four sales mandated through 2035 under the sweeping tax and budget bill called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that President Donald Trump signed into law in July. Each sale must offer at least 400,000 acres, according to the bill.
It is also the third scheduled lease sale since 2020. At that time, in the final days of the first Trump administration, a sale was held as directed by the 2017 tax bill. That lease sale drew lackluster bidding, and a 2021 lease sale drew no bids at all.
Despite past sale results, the Trump administration is promoting ANWR oil leasing as a major resource development opportunity. The Department of the Interior in October reversed Biden administration environmental protections and announced that it would open the refuge’s entire 1.56-million-acre coastal plain to leasing.
“Since passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the BLM has had a clear congressional mandate to administer a competitive oil and gas program for the Coastal Plain,” Kevin Pendergast, the BLM’s Alaska state director, said in a statement. “With the new decision in place, bolstered by Congress’ recent and emphatic direction in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, this lease sale process provides a clear path forward to finally unlock the Coastal Plain’s resource potential.”
Environmentalists and representatives of Gwich’in Athabascan tribes, which oppose oil drilling in the refuge because of possible impacts to the Porcupine Caribou Herd and other resources, condemned the move toward new leasing.
“Two previous lease sales have already been economic failures, proving that the absurd Arctic Refuge leasing program should be eliminated and permanent protection must be provided for the calving grounds of the Porcupine Caribou Herd,” Meda DeWitt, Alaska senior manager for The Wilderness Society, said in a statement.
“Though this call for nominations is required by law, any nominations put forward would be an affront to our sustained call that any development on this land would have irreversible, adverse effects on the land and, in turn, the wellbeing of our community,” Raeann Garnett, chief of the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, said in a separate statement. “We will continue to fight, as we have for generations, to protect the Coastal Plain from oil and gas development and we stand steadfast that any nominations to lease this land are a direct attack on our way of life.”
But an organization representing the Iñupiat people of the North Slope, who have generally favored oil development in the refuge and elsewhere, welcomed the call for nominations from the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management.
“We’re excited to see DOI and BLM continue to move forward with plans for responsible onshore development in ANWR,” Nagruk Harcharek, president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, said in a statement. “The North Slope Iñupiat — including the people of Kaktovik, the only community in ANWR — have fought for our right to self-determination on our lands for generations. This process now represents an important opportunity for the federal government to continue meaningful engagement with the North Slope Iñupiat.”