The Trump administration is pushing forward plans to expand oil and gas drilling across vast stretches of Alaska, reopening battles over the Arctic’s future.
Valerie Volcovici reports for Reuters.
In short:
- The U.S. Interior Department announced it will reopen over 80% of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s Coastal Plain for oil and gas leasing.
- Restrictions will also be lifted along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Corridor and Dalton Highway, paving the way for long-contested infrastructure projects like the Ambler Road and a liquefied natural gas pipeline.
- While some Indigenous groups like the Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation support the move as a step toward economic self-determination, environmental groups and others warn of irreversible harm to wildlife and climate.
Key quote:
“Expanding oil drilling across public lands in the Arctic is risky, harmful to the health and well-being of people who reside nearby, devastating to wildlife and bad for the climate.”
— Carole Holley, managing attorney, Earthjustice Alaska Regional Office
Why this matters:
Lifting restrictions along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and greenlighting dormant projects like the Ambler Road will reshape a landscape that’s home to migrating caribou, nesting birds, and thawing permafrost that holds back a flood of climate chaos. In a time when climate warnings are blaring like sirens, the administration’s plan reads like a throwback to an era before we knew the climate and environmental impacts of oil and gas drilling.
Read more: “Code Red” for climate means reducing US oil and gas production
