Trump Plans Arctic Drilling Rights Sale in Likely 2020 Clash
- Mammoth oil prize beckons drillers to northeast Alaska coast
- Activists warn oil operations imperil polar bears and caribou
Photographer: Getty Images
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The Trump administration on Monday authorized a sweeping plan to sell drilling rights and spur oil development in Alaska’s rugged Arctic refuge, setting up a possible auction by the end of 2020 and a political clash if the president loses the November election.
The Interior Department’s decision approves oil leasing across the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s entire 1.56-million-acre coastal plain -- an area the size of Delaware that’s home to polar bears and caribou. Though Congress earmarked the area for possible energy development in 1980, it has remained off-limits to oil drilling for decades.