The Trump administration unveiled a set of actions to open parts of Alaska’s wilderness to energy and infrastructure development, including permitting oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
The move reversed restrictions imposed under former President Joe Biden by reopening the full 1.56 million-acre Coastal Plain of ANWR to leasing. The region, which covers 19 million acres of largely roadless terrain in Alaska, is estimated to hold up to 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
The Interior Department also said it will restore previously cancelled oil and gas leases to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), a state agency that was among the bidders in an earlier lease auction.
The seven leases granted by the authority in 2021 were revoked by the Biden administration in 2023, but this year, a federal judge ruled that the government did not have the authority to do so. Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy praised the decision to reopen the area.
