Interior Department takes step toward drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Show Caption Hide Caption What Is ANWR? What to know about Alaska's controversial territory The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been the subject of political debates for the past 40 years. Here are the facts about ANWR.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will take its first step toward oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this week when it officially launches a 60-day review process for holding a lease sale in the pristine area.

A noticed to be published Friday in the Federal Register will start the environmental review process for setting up an oil and gas leasing program in the refuge’s 1.5-million-acre coastal plain.

The review will help identify potential environmental issues related to the development, production and transportation of oil and gas in and from the coastal plain, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management said in a statement.

Public hearings will be held in Anchorage, Arctic Village, Fairbanks, Kaktovik and Utqiagvik and possibly other areas if there is strong community interest, the agency said.

Republicans in Congress, who for years have sought to open up the refuge to oil and gas exploration, praised the Trump administration’s move as a step that is long overdue and one that will lead to responsible energy development.

“We appreciate the department following the law, planning multiple public meetings with Alaskans and moving forward on this important program to help ensure the energy and economic security of our nation,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a joint statement with the other two members of Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation.

But environmental groups accused the administration of rushing toward oil and gas drilling while disregarding the biological, cultural and climate impacts on a rapidly warming Arctic.

“Our generation must not allow the Trump administration to transform the wildest place left in America into an industrial complex of oil rigs, roads, pipelines and landing strips,” said Adam Kolton, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League.

Jamie Williams, president of The Wilderness Society, accused the administration of pursuing “an irresponsibly aggressive timeline for Arctic Refuge drilling that reflects the Trump administration’s eagerness to turn over America’s public lands to private industry for development.”

“They are taking reckless shortcuts that are a terrible violation of public trust,” Williams said.

The first lease sale will be held after completion of an environmental analysis and will offer at least 400,000 acres for bid.

The GOP-led Congress voted late last year to lift a ban that had been in place since 1980 on oil and gas drilling in the refuge, a 19.6-million-acre section of northeastern Alaska that is considered one of the most pristine areas in the country. The ban was removed as part of the Republican tax-reform package approved in December.

In lifting the moratorium, Congress ordered two lease sales in the refuge — the first within four years, the second within seven. Each lease sale is to include at least 400,000 acres. Surface development on the federal land would be limited to 2,000 acres.

Though drilling has been off-limits for decades, the refuge has long been presumed to be rich in natural resources.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are 5 billion to 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the coastal plain. But those estimates were based on tests that relied on technology that is now out of date, so additional seismic testing may be needed to get a better picture of what lies underground.

Environmentalists have threatened legal action to block drilling in the refuge.

"The Trump administration's reckless dash to expedite drilling and destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will only hasten a trip to the courthouse," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and chief executive officer of Defenders of Wildlife. "We will not stand by and watch the desecrate this pristine landscape."

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