Trump Reopens Alaska’s Arctic Coastal Plain to Oil Drilling
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
Photographer: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post/Getty Images
The Trump administration is opening the entire coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas leasing, reversing a Biden administration decision that put the pristine wilderness area off limits.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Thursday the agency was opening the 1.56 million acre of tundra on the state’s North Slope and holding a lease sale this winter in the nearby National Petroleum Reserve. It’s the latest move President Donald Trump’s administration to boost domestic fossil fuel production.