'Hands Off the Arctic,' Say Wilderness Defenders as Trump Holds Alaska Oil and Gas Lease Sale

The Trump administration is set Friday to sell oil and gas drilling leases on 689,000 acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a pristine and protected area in northeastern Alaska's coastal plain known for its massive biodiversity and held sacred by its Indigenous inhabitants.The US Department of the Interior's (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is offering 60 tracts in the ANWR to fossil fuel companies that submitted bids by Wednesday. The lease sale is the first of four in the ANWR mandated under the One Big Beautiful Bill signed by President Donald Trump last year and follows two previous sales this decade, one of which saw little interest during Trump's first term and another that generated no bids during the tenure of former President Joe Biden.The sale is part of Trump's drill, baby, drill fossil fuel agenda and follows last October's reopening by the DOI of 1.56 million acres of the Coastal Plain to oil and gas leasing. The move reversed the Biden administration's 2023 cancellation of all existing oil and gas leases in the ANWR and ban on drilling across 13 million acres of the adjacent National Petroleum Reserve. The Trump administration also recently transferred approximately 1.4 million acres of public lands along the Dalton Utility Corridor from the BLM to the state of Alaska, a move one conservationist warned will only help corporate polluters transform Alaska into an industrial wasteland... for the sake of expanding the portfolios of mining and oil and gas companies. The ANWR is home to Indigenous peoples, primarily the North Slope Iñupiat and the Gwich’in. The former are generally supportive of fossil fuel development, arguing that it provides jobs and revenue and boosts self-determination, while the latter broadly opposes drilling. The Gwich'in call the area “the sacred place where life begins and rely upon its rich biodiversity—especially its 200,000-strong porcupine caribou herd—for their survival. ANWR boasts some 270 animal species, including musk oxen, Arctic foxes, snow geese and other migratory birds, and all of the world’s remaining South Beaufort Sea polar bears.While the American Petroleum Institute, the nation's leading fossil fuel lobby, welcomed Friday's lease sale, calling Alaska's oil and gas key to America's energy security, Kristen Moreland, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, countered that some places are too important to sacrifice.In a Thursday call with reporters, Moreland said that tomorrow's lease sale is about much more than economics or development. It is about whether our voices, our culture, and our way of life matters.Conservationists also denounced the lease sale, which Earthjustice—part of a coalition challenging the DOI's policy in federal court—called another effort to sell out our public lands to boost corporate profits, while Indigenous communities, wildlife, and future generations carry the risk.US Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Friday on X that America's public lands—including the incredible Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—belong to all of us. But now the Trump-Vance administration is auctioning it off to their Big Oil cronies that already have plenty of other areas to drill.In a video posted Thursday on social media, US Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) called ANWR the crown jewel of our American National Wildlife Refuge system.Tomorrow, the Trump administration is gonna try to lease the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. So I've got a message for all the oil majors out there, the senator said. I understand you have a job to do. That job never involves drilling in American national parks or national wildlife refuges. Don't bid.Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) also posted a video addressing the lease sale and arguing that Big Oil—part of an industry that spent nearly 450 million during the 2024 election cycle on campaign donations, lobbying, and other efforts to elect Trump and down-ballot Republicans—is calling the shots. The Alaska Wilderness League said on X that no matter how the administration and oil industry spin today’s lease sale, the outcome doesn’t change: weak demand, shrinking interest, and a story that keeps collapsing under its own promises.The Arctic is not for sale, never has been, never will be, the group added. Hands off the Arctic.