Earthjustice Statement on Trump Administration Plan to Open Most of the Western Arctic to Oil and Gas Drilling

The Department of Interior yesterday released a draft environmental analysis (EA) selecting a disastrous drilling plan for the Western Arctic that would allow oil and gas drilling on 82% of the public lands within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The plan would open roughly 7 million more acres of the 23-million-acre Reserve to oil and gas leasing, for a total of 18.5 million acres. The new public lands the agency proposes to open to development include ecologically sensitive areas currently designated as Special Areas to protect essential wildlife habitat and traditional subsistence practices of local people.

The affected Special Areas include, among others, Teshekpuk Lake and Colville River. Teshekpuk Lake is Alaska’s largest lake in the Arctic, and one of the state’s most important bird areas, particularly for Brant geese and yellow-billed loons. The Colville River is the largest river in Arctic Alaska, and supports migratory birds, fish and wildlife including caribou, moose, wolves and bears.

The Reserve in the Western Arctic is where ConocoPhillips’ controversial Willow project is being constructed. The release of the draft EA yesterday began the process of a westward expansion of oil and gas development into the nation’s largest undisturbed tract of public land. The move would roll back the current Western Arctic management plan that kept half of the Reserve off limits to oil development and replace it with a much more expansive plan, first proposed in the first Trump era to try to maximize oil and gas drilling in the Arctic.

Members of the public have just two weeks, until July 1, to comment on the environmental study.

The move was not unexpected — the rollback was outlined in Project 2025 and the administration also made its plans clear in a day one executive order and a subsequent secretarial order. However, the lack of process and brief comment period is unusual, particularly given the magnitude and significant impacts of this decision. The move comes even before the Trump administration has finalized the repeal of separate rules safeguarding special areas like Teshekpuk Lake and the Colville River from oil and gas development. The new drilling plan runs counter to those protections, which remain in place until the 60-day comment period on the new Trump rule ends and Interior makes a final decision. When those protections were put into place during the Biden administration, the process took 10 months and resulted in more than 250,000 people calling on the federal government to expand protections against oil and gas drilling and set aside more lands as special areas under the law.

“This is an unusually brief comment period for such an important decision, which is in line with the Trump administration’s plans to drill at all costs, regardless of what the public wants and whether it’s lawful,” said Earthjustice Attorney Jeremy Lieb. “The lands they plan to open to drilling include Special Areas that are essential habitat for wildlife, birds, and fish and are critical for traditional Indigenous subsistence practices. Fossil fuel development in the Arctic threatens these irreplaceable lands and waters and our climate. We will continue to protect these areas against each new threat.”

The project would also add significant greenhouse gas emissions, adding to the vast amount already projected to be emitted from Willow. According to the government’s own estimates in the draft EA, which are likely an underestimate, the project would release 700 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades.

Background

Protections for the Western Arctic’s lands are embedded in the National Petroleum Reserves Protection Act (NPRPA). When Congress transferred management of the Western Arctic from the U.S. Navy to the Bureau of Land Management in 1976, it recognized the area’s rich ecological values and required “maximum protection” for fish, wildlife, and habitat in Special Areas. When Congress authorized leasing and oil development in 1980, it again directed the federal government to ensure the protection of the Western Arctic’s ecological and cultural resources.

Currently, five designated Special Areas, places with long-term protection from development, cover more than 13 million acres within the 23-million-acre Reserve, the nation’s largest tract of public land. The new plan would allow oil development in more than 11 million acres of those Special Areas.