Biden administration plans new limits on oil leasing in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

A new environmental study recommends additional protections for wildlife, waterways and permafrost, with new rules for a legally mandated lease sale.

Oil companies could buy oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but with new restrictions, under a plan released Wednesday.

At least 400,000 acres in the refuge’s coastal plain would be available for oil and gas leasing, but only in areas deemed to have high potential for holding hydrocarbons and only under some new environmental restrictions to protect wildlife and other resources, according to the preferred plan released by the President Joe Biden’s administration.

The plan, detailed in a supplemental environmental impact statement led by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, proposes much more limited oil development than what was authorized by the administration of former President and now President-elect Donald Trump.

The fate of the refuge’s coastal plain has been subject of hot debate for decades, pitting desires for oil development in a new part of Arctic Alaska against desires for environmental protection, including protection of the calving grounds of the huge Porcupine caribou herd.

With Trump set to return to the White House, the area is back in the spotlight. He has declared intentions to reopen the area to drilling. He has claimed, falsely, that it holds potential for more oil than what is in Saudi Arabia.

He referred to the refuge in a September town hall event in Michigan, though he confused it with Bagram air base in Afghanistan. “We have Bagram in Alaska, they say it might be bigger than all of Saudi Arabia,” he said at the time.

Environmentalists are expecting a tough fight over the refuge in the coming years.

“The coastal plain is clearly something in the crosshairs of the Trump administration,” said Cooper Freeman, Alaska director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Freeman noted that the 2021 lease sale drew little industry interest. Nonetheless, “It’s going to be the fight of our lives to keep the Arctic Refuge protected from development,” he said.

The Biden administration’s new environmental study was launched in response to legal challenges against the Trump plan, and it is intended to correct what the Biden administration characterized as deficiencies in studies done by the Trump administration that led to a January 2021 auction that sold nine leases.

No major oil companies submitted bids, and no exploration work took place on the leases that were sold. The main bidder was the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state development agency, which picked up seven leases. An Anchorage real-estate company bought another, and a small oil company bought one. The latter bidders relinquished their leases voluntarily, and the Biden administration canceled the AIDEA leases, citing the need for better environmental analysis.

Although Biden, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and others in the administration oppose oil development in the refuge, a second lease sale is required by law.

The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017, signed by Trump, mandates two lease sales offering at least 400,000 acres be held before the end of 2024.

The main differences between the Biden administration’s chosen alternative for leasing and that pursued by the Trump administration concern protections for caribou, polar bears, marine and freshwater areas and ice-rich permafrost.

One major difference is the limit on the areas within the coastal plain that may be leased. Under the new preferred plan, tracts offered for leasing would be concentrated in the northern and western part of the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain; much of the eastern and southern area is withheld from leasing because of use by the Porcupine Caribou Herd.

Another difference is a new limit of 995 acres for surface disturbance, down from the 2,000 acres allowed under the Trump plan.

A third notable difference is the preferred alternative’s restriction on seismic exploration, which employs heavy equipment on the surface to send soundwaves into the earth to help map out geologic structures. Under the new preferred alternative, seismic exploration would be limited to leased tracts; under the previous Trump administration plan, seismic exploration was to be allowed throughout the entirety of the coastal plan. Although seismic exploration was proposed, none was carried out.

The exact date of the lease sale to be held is yet to be determined. It would follow the next step in the administrative process, which is the issuance of a formal document called a “record of decision” that makes the choice final. The record of decision will come no earlier than 30 days after the notice of the supplemental environmental impact statement is published in the Federal Register. Publication is scheduled for Friday, the BLM said.

The Biden administration’s move toward new restrictions on refuge leasing drew sharp criticism from some ardent supporters of oil development there.

Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, a regional group that has generally advocated for oil development across the North Slope, said in a statement that local leaders are unified in their opposition to the new plan, singling out the effect on the village of Kaktovik.

“It seems that once again the people of the North Slope are being told that our voices and lived experience are insufficient, and that federal laws passed by Congress mean little in the eyes of the Biden administration’s Department of the Interior (DOI),” North Slope Borough Mayor Josiah Patkotak said in the statement. “The federal government’s latest actions are shameful and will have serious consequences for Kaktovik and the North Slope. With this latest development, DOI has soundly rejected the opportunity to partner in our effort to aptly balance development and preservation in our region.”

Rex Rock Sr., president of the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., also criticized the new restrictions.

“There is a majority consensus of elected leadership across the North Slope, including Kaktovik, that responsible resource development is essential to maintaining our economic security and way of life,” he said in the Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat statement. “We remain united against any attack on our self-determination.”

Kaktovik, which has about 270 residents, is the easternmost Alaska North Slope community and close to much of the caribou-calving area that the new plan has designated for protection. It is also a center of ardent support for drilling in the refuge coastal plain, as its village for-profit corporation owns land that could be developed. Arctic Slope Regional Corp., the regional Native corporation for the North Slope, has the mineral rights on that Native-owned land, and it also generates much of its income from North Slope oil operations.

In Tuesday’s election, 78% of Kaktovik’s presidential vote went to Trump, according to preliminary results from the Alaska Division of Elections.

Alaska Natives who oppose oil development in the refuge said Wednesday they will continue their fight.

In a statement, the Neets’ąįį Gwich’in Tribal governments of Arctic Village and Venetie, Gwich’in Athabascan communities near the southern edge of the refuge, renewed their call to permanent ban oil development in the refuge.

“As people connected to the Arctic Refuge for our cultural, spiritual, and subsistence purposes, we will never accept any disruption of this land,” RaeAnn Garnett, first chief of Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, said in the statement. “Though the FSEIS is an improvement on the previous EIS, we continue to urge Congress to create permanent protections for this land that our people have lived in concert with for countless generations.”

“It is inarguable that the Arctic Refuge EIS released by the Trump Administration was inadequate and completely disregarded the impact any oil and gas activities would have on our Tribal communities who rely on that land,” Galen Gilbert, first chief of Arctic Village Council, said in the statement. “The recently released FSEIS is an improvement on the initial assessment. However, this is only a step towards protecting our Sovereignty and right to continue our traditional way of life that depends on this sacred place.”

In Tuesday’s election, over 90% of Arctic Village voters supported the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and 72.5% of Venetie voters also supported the Harriz-Walz ticket, according to preliminary results from the Division of Elections.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was the lead author of the legislative language that requires the lease sale. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, she said she fears that the plan “effectively crippled and made it not viable for anybody to bid on with the conditions that they have put in place.”

She also said potential bidders may look elsewhere as Trump opens up federal land where development is less costly. She wants oil companies to come to Alaska, she said “But I think we need to also recognize that perhaps we’re not the only game in town,” she said.

The Center for Biological Diversity’s Freeman said the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain is likely to be only one area over which environmentalists will be battling with the incoming Trump administration.

“We are definitely going to be playing some serious defense to protect what’s left and all we love and cherish across Alaska,” he said.

Reporter James Brooks contributed to this article.

Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: [email protected]. Follow Alaska Beacon on Facebook and X.