On Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, the Trump administration finalized plans to open up the coastal plain in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas exploration, effectively overturning the Biden administration’s efforts to protect the region from drilling. While the state’s oil reserves are plentiful, the area is also home to a variety of endangered wildlife; given the temperate nature of the Arctic refuge, this decision has led to immense outcry both regionally and internationally.

Doug Burgum, the current U.S. interior secretary, reasoned the decision as a means to “unlock Alaska’s energy and resource potential…while driving economic growth across the state”. The wild landscape is estimated to have up to 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Reversing the Biden administration’s 2024 plan of closing off 1.56 million acres of the coastal plain to oil and gas leasing, the plan also established the Ambler Road Project, which requires industrialization of over 23,600 acres. As of now, the entirety of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coast is open to lessees for oil and gas drilling.

To provide a necessary distinction, Alaska’s oil-rich areas are divided between two main lands. The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is a 23.4 million-acre petroleum reserve established in 1923, officially under the Department of the Interior. On the other hand, the 19.3 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been managed by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, serving as the largest national wildlife refuge in the country. It is this region’s 1.56 million-acre coast where the Department of the Interior has authorized exploration. Referred to as the “crown jewel” of the public lands system by Alaska Wilderness League’s Executive Director, Kristen Miller, the ANWR is home to over 270 species, including polar bears, seals, whales, caribou, multiple types of birds, and musk oxen, along with the indigenous Gwich’in and Iñupiat people.

By leasing the lands to oil companies, the Trump administration has inaugurated a world of roads, airstrips, destructive machinery, and pollution to the ecosystem, creating a detrimental atmosphere for the region’s fragile tundra, disrupting the denning patterns for its already-endangered wildlife. According to The Guardian, these announced projects include a reissuing of the Ambler Road Project, and could endanger over 200,000 migratory birds and threaten the areas’ hunting and fishing viability for the indigenous groups. In the wake of the current climate crisis, environmentalists are particularly concerned about the impact this could have on advancing global climate change.

Outraged at the decision, Earthjustice Attorney Erik Grafe claimed that this decision “puts America — and Alaska — last….threaten(ing) irreplaceable wildlife and cultural traditions…worsen(ing) the climate crisis and undermin(ing) energy security by seeking to lock in reliance on fossil fuels.” The region has been under debate for multiple presidencies, but following this decision, Natural Resources Defense Council director Bobby McEnaney declared drilling in the Arctic Refuge to be “reckless…public lands must serve people, wildlife, and a livable climate — not host a fire sale for fossil fuel companies.”

Although the decision has already been made, climate change organizations and activists are on the move, attempting to protect one of the last natural refuge coasts in the United States. The announcement from Trump’s administration leaves an ominous precedent as to what world governments will prioritize in times of an acute climate crisis.