Editing Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (section)

==Drilling==
{{main|Arctic Refuge drilling controversy}}

{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage=[[File:1002 Area ANWR.jpg|210px]]
 | video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hey_WIAFVA Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge], [[The White House]], 0:58<ref name="WH">{{cite web | title =President Obama Calls on Congress to Protect Arctic Refuge as Wilderness | date =25 January 2015 | url =https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2015/01/25/president-obama-calls-congress-protect-arctic-refuge-wilderness | via =[[NARA|National Archives]] | work =[[whitehouse.gov]] | access-date =26 January 2015 }}</ref> }}
The question of whether to drill for oil in the ANWR has been an ongoing political controversy in the United States since 1977.<ref>Shogren, Elizabeth. [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5007819 "For 30 Years, a Political Battle Over Oil and ANWR."] ''[[All Things Considered]]''. [[National Public Radio|NPR]]. 10 November 2005.</ref>

The controversy surrounds [[Oil well|drilling for oil]] in a subsection of the coastal plain, known as the "1002 area".<ref name="usdoe">{{cite web|url=http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/arctic_national_wildlife_refuge/html/overview.html|title=Potential Oil Production from the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Updated Assessment|publisher=US DOE|access-date=2009-03-14| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090403054058/http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/arctic_national_wildlife_refuge/html/overview.html| archive-date= 3 April 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref> ANWR is {{convert|19286722|acre|km2}}. The coastal plain is {{convert|1500000|acre|km2}}. The current proposal would limit development to {{convert|2000|acre|km2}} of that plain.<ref>[https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/11/19/congress-moves-drill-baby-drill-alaska-anwr-refuge-heres-what-you-should-know/874187001/ Congress moves to 'drill, baby, drill' in Alaska's ANWR. Here's what you should know] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317102638/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/11/19/congress-moves-drill-baby-drill-alaska-anwr-refuge-heres-what-you-should-know/874187001/ |date=17 March 2018 }}<br />"Surface development on the federal land would be limited to 2,000 acres."</ref>

Much of the debate over whether to drill in the 1002 area of ANWR rests on the amount of economically recoverable oil, as it relates to world oil markets, weighed against the potential harm [[Hydrocarbon exploration|oil exploration]] might have upon the [[National Wildlife Refuge|natural wildlife]], in particular the calving ground of the [[Porcupine caribou]].<ref name=natgeo>Mitchell, John. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080105054927/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/08/01/html/ft_20010801.3.html "Oil Field or Sanctuary?"] ''National Geographic'' 1 August 2001.</ref> The Arctic was found to have an immense amount of oil and [[natural gas]] deposits. Specifically, ANWR occupies land beneath which there may be {{convert|7.7|to|11.8|e9oilbbl|e9m3|abbr=unit}} of oil. In Alaska, it is known for major oil companies to work with the indigenous groups, [[Alaska Native corporation|Alaska native corporations]], to drill and export millions of barrels of oil each year.

Nearly all countries in the Arctic are rushing to claim the resources and minerals found in the Arctic. This rivalry is known as the "New Cold War" or "Race for the Arctic". [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] argued for years that drilling should be allowed since there would be over $30 million of revenue and create as many as 130,000 jobs. Furthermore, Republicans claim that drilling will make the United States more independent from other countries because it will increase the [[oil reserves]] of the country. For Republicans to enable exploitation of the oil, they would need 51 votes in the Senate to pass the House bill that cannot include the ANWR drilling language.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

People who oppose the drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge believe that it would be a threat to the lives of [[Alaska Natives|indigenous tribes]]. Those tribes rely on the ANWR's wildlife, the animals and plants that reside in the refuge. Moreover, the practice of drilling could present a potential threat to the region as a whole. When companies are exploring and drilling they are extracting the vegetation and destroying [[permafrost]] which can cause harm to the land.

In December 2017, Congress passed the Trump administration's tax bill which
included a provision introduced by Senator [[Lisa Murkowski]] that required Interior Secretary [[Ryan Zinke]] to approve at least two lease sales for drilling in the refuge.<ref>{{cite web |last1=D'Angelo |first1=Chris |title=Trump Says He 'Really Didn't Care' About Drilling Arctic Refuge. Then A Friend Called |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-arctic-drilling-anwr_us_5a735a04e4b06ee97af09f89 |website=HuffPost |date=February 2018 |access-date=29 July 2018 |archive-date=29 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729042506/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-arctic-drilling-anwr_us_5a735a04e4b06ee97af09f89 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/CT2VYZEHFUY Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20180729193904/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT2VYZEHFUY&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web |last1=Trump begins to speak at minute 1:40 |title=ANWR wildlife refuge |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT2VYZEHFUY |website=YouTube |date=29 July 2018 |access-date=29 July 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In September 2019, the administration said they would like to see the entire coastal plain opened for gas and oil exploration, the most aggressive of the suggested development options.  The Interior Department's [[Bureau of Land Management]] (BLM) has filed a final [[environmental impact statement]] and plans to start granting leases by the end of the year. In a review of the statement the [[United States Fish and Wildlife Service|U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]] said the BLM's final statement underestimated the climate impacts of the oil leases because they viewed global warming as cyclical rather than human-made. The administration's plan calls for "the construction of as many as four places for airstrips and well pads, {{convert|175|mi|km|disp=sqbr}} of roads, vertical supports for pipelines, a seawater-treatment plant and a barge landing and storage site."<ref>{{cite news |title=Trump administration opens huge reserve in Alaska to drilling |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/trump-administration-chooses-most-expansive-approach-to-oil-gas-exploration-in-alaska-wildlife-refuge/2019/09/12/cfac63cc-d597-11e9-9610-fb56c5522e1c_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=20 October 2019 |archive-date=21 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191021010930/https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/trump-administration-chooses-most-expansive-approach-to-oil-gas-exploration-in-alaska-wildlife-refuge/2019/09/12/cfac63cc-d597-11e9-9610-fb56c5522e1c_story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Holden |first1=Emily |title=Trump opens protected Alaskan Arctic refuge to oil drillers |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/12/trump-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-oil-gas-drilling |website=The Guardian |date=12 September 2019 |access-date=22 October 2019 |archive-date=22 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022043231/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/12/trump-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-oil-gas-drilling |url-status=live }}</ref>

In response to public outcry and concerns of worsening climate change, U.S. banks [[Goldman Sachs]], [[JPMorgan Chase]] and [[Wells Fargo]] publicly announced that they will not fund oil and gas projects in the Arctic region.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-oil-alaska-idUSKBN20Q0H2|title=Wall Street backs away from Arctic drilling amid Alaska political heat|date=2020-03-03|work=Reuters|access-date=2020-03-04|language=en}}</ref> These decisions come as President Donald Trump's administration is proceeding with planned lease sales in the Refuge.

On August 17, 2020, Interior Secretary [[David Bernhardt]] announced an oil and gas leasing program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Gregory Wallace and Chandelis Duster|title=Trump administration announces plans to drill in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge|url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/politics/trump-arctic-wildlife-drilling/index.html|access-date=2020-08-17|website=CNN|date=17 August 2020|archive-date=17 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200817144600/https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/politics/trump-arctic-wildlife-drilling/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> This will allow for future drilling in the Refuge.

An auction for the land leases was held on January 6, 2021. Of the twenty-two tracts up for auction, full bids were offered for only eleven tracts. An Alaskan state entity, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, won the bids on nine tracts. Two small independent companies, Knik Arm Services LLC and Regenerate Alaska Inc, won one tract each. The auction generated $14.4 million, significantly lower than the $1.8 billion estimate from the [[Congressional Budget Office]] in 2019, and the auction did not receive bids from any oil and gas companies.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-alaska-oil/oil-drillers-shrug-off-trumps-u-s-arctic-wildlife-refuge-auction-idUSKBN29B0KR|title=Oil drillers shrug off Trump's U.S. Arctic wildlife refuge auction|work=www.reuters.com|author1=Nichola Groom|author2=Yereth Rosen|date=January 6, 2021|accessdate=June 1, 2021}}</ref> A second auction in December 2024 and January 2025 also did not receive bids from any oil and gas companies.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Frazin |first=Rachel |date=December 8, 2025 |title=Companies decline to drill in Alaska wildlife refuge |url=https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5074074-alaska-wildlife-refuge-interior-department-drilling/ |access-date=January 8, 2025 |work=The Hill}}</ref>

On January 20, 2021, newly inaugurated President [[Joe Biden]] issued an executive order to temporarily halt drilling activity in the refuge.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-us-news-alaska-wildlife-arctic-cdd89af06cb892e042782ace3abca8eb|title=Biden plans temporary halt of oil activity in Arctic refuge|date=20 January 2021|website=AP NEWS|access-date=22 January 2021|archive-date=20 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120231107/https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-us-news-alaska-wildlife-arctic-cdd89af06cb892e042782ace3abca8eb|url-status=live}}</ref>

On June 1, 2021, President Biden suspended all of the oil drilling leases issued by the previous administration, pending a review of the environmental impacts and legal basis of the leases.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Davenport|first1=Coral|last2=Fountain|first2=Henry|last3=Friedman|first3=Lisa|date=2021-06-01|title=Biden Suspends Drilling Leases in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/climate/biden-drilling-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge.html|access-date=2021-06-01|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=6 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606204749/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/climate/biden-drilling-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-suspend-oil-leases-arctic-refuge_n_60b677b6e4b0c5658f995387|title=Biden Administration to Suspend Trump-Era Oil Leases in Arctic Refuge|date=June 2021}}</ref> On September 6, 2023, the Biden administration cancelled the leases.<ref>{{cite news |title=Biden to cancel oil and gas leases in Alaska issued by Trump administration |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/06/alaska-biden-cancels-gas-oil-drilling |website=[[The Guardian]] |date=6 September 2023 |access-date=7 September 2023}}</ref> In January, 2025, the [[List_of_governors_of_Alaska|Dunleavy administration]] sued the Biden administration, claiming Arctic refuge lease sale restrictions violate a 2017 law mandating development.<ref>{{cite news |last1=DeMarban |first1=Alex |title=Dunleavy administration sues Interior over ANWR lease sale |url=https://www.adn.com/business-economy/energy/2025/01/07/alaska-is-suing-the-biden-administration-over-fridays-arctic-refuge-oil-lease-sale-will-there-be-much-bidding-this-time/ |work=Anchorage Daily News |date=January 8, 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

On January 20, 2025, President Trump declared the protected wildlife refuge open for gas and oil exploration and exploitation via executive action on his first day in office.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Frazin |first=Rachel |date=January 20, 2025 |title=Trump issues orders aiming to drill in contentious Alaska areas, revisit Biden climate rules |url=https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5097241-trump-executive-orders-oil-drilling-climate-electric-vehicles/ |access-date=January 20, 2025 |website=The Hill}}</ref>