The Interior Department unveiled plans Friday to hold an oil lease sale this June in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an untouched expanse of public land in the far northeast corner of Alaska.
The auction will be the first lease sale in ANWR’s coastal plain under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the 2025 law championed by the Trump administration that requires four sales in the 1.5-million-acre section of the refuge by 2035.
Trump administration officials have touted the upcoming sale as helping unlock Alaskan energy. President Donald Trump has “long supported Alaska’s important contribution to American energy dominance and Interior is proud to take the necessary and durable steps to unleash these important resources on behalf of the American people,” said Kate MacGregor, deputy Interior secretary, in a statement.
Environmental groups have noted that a January 2025 oil lease sale for ANWR yielded no bids — something that a top Biden administration official cheered at the time. Drilling in the refuge would mar a wild landscape, drilling opponents said.
