Alaska Wilderness League Condemns President Trump’s Attack On Alaska During the Government Shutdown
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: October 23, 2025
Contact: Anja Semanco | 724-967-2777 | anja@alaskawild.org
Alaska Wilderness League Condemns President Trump’s Attack On Alaska During the Government Shutdown
Washington, D.C.—Following today’s announcement by Secretary Burgum related to Alaska actions, Alaska Wilderness League Executive Director Kristen Miller issued the following statement:
“The Arctic Refuge is the crown jewel of our public lands system. During a government shutdown, when everyday Americans are left without basic services, President Trump has chosen to double down on failed policies that prioritize oil corporations over people. Alaska is under relentless attack, and Alaska’s iconic wild places are a powerful reminder of what we have to lose as we face continued efforts to dismantle public lands across the country,” said Kristen Miller, executive director at Alaska Wilderness League. “Opening the entire coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge to drilling would destroy one of the most ecologically significant landscapes on Earth—the birthing grounds of the Porcupine Caribou herd, vital habitat for polar bears and migratory birds, and sacred land for the Gwich’in people who have stewarded its resources for millennia.”
Today’s actions are the latest in the administration’s controversial efforts to expedite Arctic Refuge leasing and other Alaska industrialization pushes. The 2017 Tax Act opened the Arctic Refuge coastal plain to oil and gas lease sales, and the Trump administration rushed the development of a leasing program during their first term. They finalized a plan with minimal land and water protections in 2020 and held a lease sale late that year, which drew no interest from major oil companies and raised less than one percent of estimated revenues. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) purchased the bulk of leases at the first sale.
AIDEA, a state agency with a history of poor financial investments and minimal public accountability, has no capacity to extract oil and gas. Despite its claims, the agency has failed to demonstrate how holding these leases benefits Alaskans.
The Biden administration reviewed, suspended, and ultimately cancelled the leases that were issued to AIDEA under the first Trump-era sale in 2023. Interior found that the Trump-era program had misinterpreted the 2017 Tax Act and failed to properly consider environmental impacts of oil industrialization. To comply with the 2017 Tax Act and other laws, the Biden administration updated the leasing program and held the second lease sale in early 2025. There were no bidders for that sale.
The announcement today included several components, including:
- A return to Trump’s Arctic Refuge leasing plan: Today’s action is a final step toward the repeal and replacement of the Biden-era Arctic Refuge Leasing Program, which was put in place to reverse Trump’s legally deficient lease sale plan. The Record of Decision signed today reopens the entire coastal plain for oil and gas leasing.
- The reinstatement of AIDEA’s Arctic Refuge leases: Following the discovery of legal deficiencies in Trump’s leasing program, the Biden administration reviewed and cancelled AIDEA’s seven Arctic Refuge leases. In March 2025, a court ordered the restoration of those leases on procedural grounds. Litigation surrounding these leases is still pending in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
- A land exchange for a road through the Izembek Wilderness: In southwest Alaska, Interior announced a land exchange through designated wilderness, bypassing the proper land exchange mechanism for a road that exists under the Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act (ANILCA). Alaska’s defining land conservation law, ANILCA, was designed to be flexible in planning transportation corridors, but it mandated a specific process for consideration of a road through wilderness. This action and the precedent it could set will jeopardize not only protections in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, but also conservation protections across millions of acres of Alaska’s public lands.
- The reissuance of three Right of Way permits for the Ambler Road corridor: President Biden reviewed the Ambler Road project, and after careful consideration, rejected the Right of Way for the 211-mile road across BLM lands. Today’s action reissued Right of Way permits for the project, following Trump’s action earlier in October to fast-track the project.
###