Trump Admin Finalizes Oil & Gas Development Plan for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

What’s the story?

• The Trump administration on Monday announced the final approval of a program that will allow oil and gas development in a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). 
• ANWR is a 19.3 million acre area on Alaska’s north slope on the Beaufort Sea that was opened to oil and gas exploration by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected the development would generate $1.1 billion in tax revenue from leasing royalties over a 10 year period. 
• The new leasing program, which will be administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), will allow energy development inside a 1.56 million acre non-wilderness portion of the ANWR Coastal Plain. Under the decision, the first least sale must occur before December 22, 2021, while the second lease sale would occur before December 22, 2024.
• In an Interior Dept. press release announcing the decision, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy (R) noted that the area has “between 4.3 and 11.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil reserves,” while Interior Secretary David Bernhardt added:

“Congress directed us to hold lease sales in the ANWR Coastal Plain, and we have taken a significant step in meeting our obligations by determining where and under what conditions the oil and gas development program will occur. Our program meets the legal mandate that Coastal Plain leaseholders get the necessary rights-of-way, easements and land areas for production and support facilities they need to find and develop these important Arctic oil and gas resources.”

• Conservationist groups denounced the Trump administration’s decision, as a threat to wildlife such as caribou, muskox, and polar bears, in addition to lands treasured by Alaska Natives. League of Conservation Voters Legislative Representative Laura Forero issuing the following statement:

“The Trump administration should be focused on protecting the health and well-being communities during this pandemic, not delivering another bailout to Big Oil. This action brings us one step closer to the desecration of this majestic wilderness and threatens the way of life of the Gwich’in people, their ancestral lands, and the invaluable wildlife of the Arctic Refuge’s Coastal Plain. The Refuge is ground zero for climate change and selling it out to big polluters is unpopular and unconscionable. We urge the administration to listen to Indigenous communities, halt its rushed and flawed process, and start over.”

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Public Domain)