The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced it will hold a congressionally mandated oil and gas lease sale on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The lease sale for 400,000 acres in the northwest portion of the 1.6 million-acre Coastal Plain of ANWR will be held on January 9, 2025. The lease sale was mandated by Congress in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—a law that required BLM to offer two lease sales within seven years of the law’s enactment. According to the American Petroleum Institute, “This lease offering represents the absolute minimum allowed under federal law and is less acreage than the leases BLM has canceled over the past four years.”
Background
The first lease sale was held at the very end of the Trump administration, issuing nine leases. The leases did not attract much interest because President Biden had won the election and had sworn to “end fossil fuels.’ Then in 2021, President Biden issued an executive order directing the Interior Department to review the leasing program, which resulted in its suspension while another analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act was undertaken. In 2023, BLM and the Fish and Wildlife Service found the Trump lease sale to be “seriously flawed and based on a number of fundamental legal deficiencies,” resulting in all nine of the leases being canceled. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Agency — a state agency that owned seven of the nine previously canceled leases—is expected to submit offers for the new lease sale. It approved a plan in October to use up to $20 million to bid in the upcoming ANWR auction.
In addition to canceling previous leases, the Biden-Harris administration also closed off 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A). This reserve, established by Congress in 1923 and roughly the size of Indiana, was designated as a petroleum reserve. While environmental groups strongly criticized the move, the Biden administration did approve ConocoPhillips’ $8 billion Willow oil and gas project in the NPR-A, albeit in a scaled-down form compared to the initial proposal. The Willow project is expected to help maintain the flow of oil through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and provide essential revenue and jobs for local communities in Alaska.
The administration also denied a permit for the Ambler Road mining project, which sought a right of way to access a mining district rich in copper and other minerals. Despite being guaranteed access under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the Biden-Harris administration suspended the necessary water and wetlands permits for the road, effectively disregarding a law that has been in place for over 40 years, which mandates the Secretary of the Interior to issue permits for this project. In August, the Department of the Interior announced it would restrict 28 million acres of public lands in Alaska—nearly 7% of the state’s total land area—from oil, gas, or mineral extraction. These actions align with President Biden’s long-standing opposition to oil development in Alaska, including his vote against the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) in 1973 during his first year as a Senator.
Recently, two lawsuits were filed against the Biden administration over lost leases in Alaska’s North Slope. A coalition of local and regional governments, tribal groups, and Native corporations filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Anchorage, challenging the environmental restrictions imposed on the NPR-A. Additionally, the state of Alaska has taken legal action in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to recover lost revenue from the cancellation of nine federal oil and gas leases in the ANWR Coastal Plain. Alaska’s economy is heavily reliant on oil production, with oil and gas jobs accounting for about 25% of employment and generating around half of the state’s economic output. Oil also provides up to 90% of the state’s unrestricted General Fund revenue.
Trump Administration Supports Alaskan Oil and Gas Development
President-Elect Trump is expected to reverse many of the Biden administration’s environmental regulations through executive actions early in his second term, including a more favorable leasing program for federal lands and waters. Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan has compiled a list of over 60 Biden-era decisions that negatively impacted oil and gas production in Alaska, including the suspension of oil activities in ANWR on Day 1. This list may serve as a blueprint for undoing the Biden administration’s policies in the region.
Some Biden-era regulations may be difficult to reverse quickly, such as the environmental impact statement for ANWR. However, Congress could potentially use the Congressional Review Act to invalidate this statement, reverting the ANWR oil program to the environmental review conducted during President Trump’s first term. This would also eliminate the restrictions the Biden administration placed on the program, such as limiting leasing to only 400,000 acres of ANWR, the minimum area specified by the 2017 tax law.
Another issue is Public Land Order (PLO) 5150, which restricts the use of federal land along the 800-mile pipeline that connects the North Slope oil fields to central Alaska. Under the Statehood Act, Alaska was supposed to receive this land, but the Biden administration did not follow through on its promise to consider revoking the order. If elected, President Trump may need to address this issue and lift the order to allow the land to be transferred to the state for other uses, such as mining.
Finally, Alaskans are hoping President-Elect Trump will overturn a rule finalized by the Biden administration that makes drilling in the NPR-A more difficult. This rule is currently being contested in court by the state of Alaska and industry groups, and a potential settlement could allow the Trump administration to amend or rescind it.
President-Elect Trump has nominated North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to be his Secretary of Interior—a department which will have a critical role in implementing Trump’s energy and “drill, baby, drill” agenda—and to head the administration’s National Energy Council. Trump has vowed to open up lands and waters for drilling, undoing the Biden-Harris administration’s opposition to it, and Burgum will play a major role.
Conclusion
The Biden-Harris Interior Department will hold an oil and gas lease sale for ANWR development next month—a lease sale that was mandated by Congress. The Biden-Harris administration has made over 60 decisions that have negatively affected energy development in Alaska and which Alaska’s lawmakers want reversed during President Trump’s second term. Trump has nominated North Dakota’s Governor, Doug Burgum, to be his Secretary of Interior, who will have a critical role in reversing the policy decisions of the Biden-Harris administration that affect the use of public lands, which Congress has said should be used in multiple ways to benefit Americans.
