Interior finalizes more protective plan for Arctic Refuge leasing program

The Biden administration's Interior Department today released a Record of Decision adopting a plan for the mandatory oil and gas leasing program on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as outlined a month ago in the agency's final supplemental environmental impact statement. This paves the way for a second mandated lease sale, which Interior announced will be held Jan. 9.

The lease sale is required by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that opened the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas leasing. A previous sale, held in the final days of the first Trump administration, attracted no major oil companies and the few leases issued were later surrendered by the bidders or canceled by the U.S. Department of the Interior because of multiple legal deficiencies in the original sale.

In moving forward with the second sale, the Biden administration imposed greater protections for the refuge's irreplaceable and sensitive natural and cultural resources, prompting the following statement from Meda DeWitt, Alaska senior manager for The Wilderness Society:

"While no sale or drilling should ever occur in the Arctic Refuge, we are grateful that the Biden administration selected a conservation-focused approach. The coastal plain is the calving ground of the Porcupine Caribou Herd and considered sacred by the region's Gwich'in communities," DeWitt said. "Massive public opposition and the undeniable realities of climate change underscore the imperative that drilling on these hallowed lands is not only misguided but also economically unsound."

At 19.3 million acres, the Arctic Refuge is America's largest wildlife refuge and provides habitat for caribou, polar bear and migrating birds from across the globe, and a diverse range of wilderness lands.Oil and gas drilling would have devastating impacts on this pristine and fragile ecosystem, caused by the massive infrastructure needed to extract and transport oil. Drilling the Arctic is risky, would fragment vital habitat, and chronic spills of oil and other toxic substances onto the fragile tundra would forever scar this vibrant and thriving landscape and disrupt its wildlife.