Trump Administration Offers Vast Tracts within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Big Oil Drilling

The Bureau of Land Management today announced a sweeping lease sale in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 

Under the terms of today’s lease sale, oil companies may bid on 58 tracts across nearly 700,00 acres within the Coastal Plain, which is critical for Arctic wildlife and the ways of life of Indigenous communities. The tracts include globally significant habitat that sustains iconic Arctic species such as caribou, migratory birds, wolves, muskoxen, brown bears,  as well as several species that are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, like polar bears and ringed and bearded seals.

The sale is one of four mandated over 10 years within the Coastal Plain in last year’s Congressional budget reconciliation bill, despite low support for Arctic drilling among Americans on both sides of the aisle. Each sale must offer at least 400,000 acres in this renewed attempt to industrialize the Coastal Plain for oil and gas extraction, even though oil companies have long shown low interest and considered drilling in the area to be risky and expensive. No commercial oil drilling has ever happened within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Any new leases resulting from today’s sale will be subject to a lawsuit brought by Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Friends of the Earth challenging the Interior Department’s October 2025 decision to maximize oil and gas leasing in the Refuge’s Coastal Plain. The lawsuit, originally filed in 2020 and amended this year, also challenges existing leases within the Coastal Plain obtained illegally by the state-sponsored corporation Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) during the first Trump administration.  Earthjustice and NRDC are co-counsel for the groups. Two other separate but parallel lawsuits, brought by other plaintiffs represented by other attorneys, are similarly challenging oil and gas leasing in the Refuge. Those other plaintiff groups include the Gwich’in Steering Committee, Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, and others.     

Following are statements in response to today’s lease sale from plaintiffs and Earthjustice:  

“Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is reckless, and the market knows it,” said Bobby McEnaney, Director, Land Conservation, NRDC. “The last Coastal Plain auction drew zero bids. Banks and insurers have walked away. Taxpayers keep footing the bill for a practice that threatens the Porcupine caribou herd and polar bear denning habitat across one of the largest intact landscapes found anywhere. No amount of pressure from Washington turns this landscape into a viable oil patch.”

“Simply put, these new leases will harm and kill polar bears,” said Hallie Templeton, Legal Director for Friends of the Earth. “This isn’t the first time we’ve seen it, and if the Trump Administration has its way, it won’t be the last. We already sued the federal government in anticipation of these leases being offered in violation of the Endangered Species Act. If Interior wants to ignore the risks that Big Oil poses to people and the planet, we’ll be sure it faces accountability in the courtroom.”  

“The Trump administration is bent on an extreme agenda of maximum oil and gas extraction across irreplaceable public lands in the Arctic,” said Earthjustice Attorney Hannah Foster. “Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is an affront to all those who want the Coastal Plain protected, not sold to the highest bidder. A reckless few should not be allowed to destroy this sacred place to line the pockets of oil companies and billionaires.” 

The lawsuit alleges violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, the Wilderness Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and other laws. NRDC and Earthjustice are co-counsel for plaintiffs NRDC, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Friends of the Earth. 

Background 

The Refuge’s Coastal Plain—1.56 million acres of tundra, braided rivers, and wetlands—is the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge, providing essential habitat for polar bears, caribou, and millions of migratory birds. It is exceedingly sensitive to disturbance and slow to recover. 

Earthjustice and NRDC, on behalf of the conservation groups, filed suit in 2020 challenging the prior attempt to lease the Coastal Plain. A lease auction was held on Jan. 6, 2021, and the Biden administration subsequently imposed a moratorium and review. The Biden administration then offered a smaller sale in 2025 that drew no bids.  

In October 2025, Interior rescinded the Biden record of decision, readopted  a program that opens the entire Coastal Plain to leasing, and lifted the suspension on AIDEA’s leases from the 2021 sale—prompting the resumption  of the lawsuit. 

This sale marks only the third oil and gas lease sale ever held in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which was first protected under President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960 as the Arctic National Wildlife Range and later designated the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by President Jimmy Carter.