Trump Administration Prepares for New Oil and Gas Auction in Alaska’s Arctic Refuge

The U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) today took a key step toward leasing public land in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas drilling. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a Call for Nominations seeking feedback on which public lands parcels should be offered for lease across the Refuge’s 1.56-million-acre Coastal Plain.

The Call for Nominations is part of BLM’s process of collecting input for an upcoming lease sale, one of four called for in the 2025 Reconciliation bill. The upcoming sale would be the first for the Refuge implementing the Trump administration’s newly adopted maximalist leasing plan that opens the entire Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to leasing.

Oil and gas exploration and drilling could destroy a globally significant wildlife refuge in Alaska that is held sacred by Gwich’in people and sustains iconic Arctic species such as polar bears, caribou and migratory birds.

The notice, which will be published tomorrow in the Federal Register, includes a 30-day comment period open to the public. During a similar action in the Western Arctic, tens of thousands of people spoke up in favor of protections for the Arctic, not more oil and gas drilling.

The following is a statement from Earthjustice Managing Attorney Erik Grafe: 

“People have worked together for decades to defend the Arctic Refuge, because this unique landscape is too special to be sacrificed to the oil industry for profit. Tripling down on oil development in the Arctic takes us in exactly the wrong direction in our existential fight to curb climate change and protect these critically important public lands. The Trump administration spent 2025 waging an all-out assault on public lands in Alaska’s Arctic, while ignoring the voices of Indigenous communities that hold these lands sacred and jeopardizing the survival of Arctic wildlife. We’ve already taken steps to challenge Interior’s overall leasing plan for the Arctic Refuge in court, and we’re prepared to continue the fight as this lease sale process grinds on.”

Background 

Today’s Call for Nominations may soon be followed by a Notice of Lease Sale – the next step BLM must take before it holds an auction divvying up the Coastal Plain to fossil-fuel industry bidders. These agency actions follow a Senate resolution that passed into law in December that struck down a 2024 management plan for the Coastal Plain that limited areas available for lease.

The Congressional action mirrored Interior’s decision to reverse the Biden administration’s 2024 drilling program for the Coastal Plain, announced in October amidst the government shutdown, in accordance with an executive order President Trump issued on his first day in office.  In re-adopting its maximalist oil program from President Trump’s first term, Interior opened the entire coastal plain to leasing and destructive industrial seismic surveying, prioritizing oil development over all other values.  Earthjustice challenged President Trump’s original leasing plan and is already in court challenging this newest version.  On Dec. 18, Earthjustice filed a Notice of Intent to Sue on behalf of clients to challenge Interior’s October decision, citing harm to threatened polar bears protected under the Endangered Species Act.