US Takes First Step to Open Arctic Wildlife Refuge to Drilling

The Interior Department is seeking comments and nominations for land to be considered for a future oil and gas lease sale to be held in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

• Call for nominations by Interior’s Bureau of Land Management seeks feedback on what tracts will be made available for a lease sale this winter in ANWR’s 1.56 million acre Coastal Plain
• One Big Beautiful Bill Act mandates no fewer than four lease sales in the Coastal Plain by 2035, with each sale offering at least 400,000 acres
• Notice follows move by Trump administration to re-open ANWR’s Coastal Plain to oil ...