This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Trump administration has moved a step closer to opening the Alaskan Arctic to oil and gas drilling as soon as next year.

The interior department’s Bureau of Land Management has published its draft environmental impact study, following Congress voting in 2017 to allow drilling within the Arctic national wildlife refuge.

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Leasing the long-protected Arctic area could be most problematic for indigenous populations, many of which rely on subsistence hunting and fishing, according to the government assessment.

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The move would also increase greenhouse gas pollution. With high oil production, the department said, the increase each year could be 5m metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, equal to putting about a million more cars on the road and up to .01% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

There could also be negative effects for birds, marine mammals and polar bears, as well as a loss of permafrost, vegetation and wetlands.

An internal memo obtained by Mother Jones warned that the department could have trouble advancing the plan because oil exploration and seismic testing could be particularly bad for polar bears.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Polar bear clubs play in a snow drift in the Arctic national wildlife refuge. Photograph: Steven Kazlowski / Barcroft Medi

The department laid out three options for lease sales. Two would make about 1.6m acres available, with possible constraints to limit environmental impacts.

The third option would exclude about a third of the coastal plain, where there is a main calving ground for the porcupine caribou herd that is culturally important to local tribes.

Adam Kolton, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, called the review “rushed” and “inadequate”.

“This is a land grab, pure and simple,” he said. “The individuals responsible care little about impacts to wildlife or the damage they would be inflicting on Alaska native people whose subsistence depends on the Arctic refuge.”

The assessment said drilling would boost local and state economic activity and contribute revenues to governments. Alaska’s senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, US congressman Don Young and Governor Michael Dunleavy – all Republicans – all praised the study.

Sullivan said leasing could boost the economy and provide good jobs. Young said it would “allow Alaska to be a leader in energy development”.