JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) \u2014 The Trump administration on Thursday finalized plans to open the coastal plain of Alaska\u2019s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to potential oil and gas drilling, renewing a long-simmering debate over whether to drill in one of the nation\u2019s environmental jewels.<\/p>\n
U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the decision Thursday that paves the way for future lease sales<\/a> within the refuge\u2019s 1.5 million-acre ( 631,309 hectare) coastal plain, an area that’s considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich\u2019in. The plan fulfills pledges made by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to reopen this portion of the refuge to possible development. Trump’s bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, passed during the summer, called for at least four lease sales within the refuge over a 10-year period.<\/p>\n Burgum was joined in Washington, D.C., by Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state\u2019s congressional delegation for this and other lands-related announcements, including the department\u2019s decision to restore oil and gas leases in the refuge that had been canceled by the prior administration.<\/p>\n A federal judge<\/a> in March said the Biden administration lacked authority to cancel the leases, which were held by a state corporation that was the major bidder in the first-ever lease sale for the refuge held at the end of Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n Leaders in Indigenous Gwich\u2019in communities near the refuge consider the coastal plain sacred, noting its importance to a caribou herd they rely upon, and they oppose drilling there. Leaders of Kaktovik, an I\u00f1upiaq community within the refuge, support drilling and consider responsible oil development to be key to their region\u2019s economic well-being.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is encouraging to see decisionmakers in Washington advancing policies that respect our voice and support Kaktovik\u2019s long term success,” Kaktovik I\u00f1upiat Corp. President Charles \u201cCC\u201d Lampe said in a statement.<\/p>\n A second lease sale in the refuge, held near the end of President Joe Biden’s term, yielded no bidders but critics of the sale argued it was too restrictive in scope.<\/p>\n Meda DeWitt, Alaska senior manager with The Wilderness Society, said that with Thursday’s announcement the administration “is placing corporate interests above the lives, cultures and spiritual responsibilities of the people whose survival depends on the Porcupine caribou herd, the freedom to live from this land and the health of the Arctic Refuge.\u201d<\/p>\n The actions detailed Thursday are consistent with those laid out by Trump on his return to office<\/a> in January, which also included calls to speed the building of a road to connect the communities of King Cove and Cold Bay.<\/p>\n