The Trump administration has finalized a plan to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, according to the Associated Press. U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced Thursday that the decision clears the way for future lease sales within the refuge’s 1.5 million-acre coastal plain, an area considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich’in people.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state’s congressional delegation joined Burgum for the announcement, which also reinstated leases previously canceled by the Biden administration. Leaders in the Iñupiaq community of Kaktovik support the plan, citing economic benefits, while Gwich’in leaders and conservation groups oppose it, saying it threatens the Porcupine caribou herd and the refuge’s ecosystem. The Wilderness Society and other groups said they plan legal challenges to the decision.
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