President Trump is racing to open another vast American wilderness to bulldozers, loggers, miners and drillers before his term ends.
Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in the northeast corner of the state on the Arctic Ocean, covers 19.3 million acres; it’s the largest such refuge in the U.S.
The remote region is home to a multitude of plant and animal species, including polar bears and grizzlies, moose, caribou, wolves, eagles and migratory birds.
The Trump administration will issue a “call for nominations” on Tuesday, inviting companies to bid on leases on the refuge’s nearly 1.6 million acre coastal plain, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
The Interior Department aims to hold that lease sale before Joe Biden takes office in January. Biden strongly opposes the action, which was authorized by then-Republican-led Congress in 2017.
The sales, locking in development and drilling rights in the pristine, roadless Arctic Refuge, could be difficult for the new president to undo.
But Biden is already getting support from environmentalists. Groups like Earthjustice (formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) are challenging the legality of the leasing program in court. If they prevail, it could void the leases.
“Even if leases are issued by the Trump administration, the Biden administration could seek to withdraw the leases if it concludes they were unlawfully issued or pose too great a threat to the environment,” Erik Grafe, a lawyer for the Alaska branch of Earthjustice told the Post.
Grafe noted that leaseholders “could then argue they deserve financial compensation if the leases are invalidated.”
Meanwhile, however, the administration is pushing ahead with its invasive plans.
“The Bureau of Land Management will hold a 30-day comment period once the call for nominations is published,” the Post says.
“Once that period closes, the agency could publish a lease sale notice, which must be published 30 days before an auction takes place. Under that timeline, drilling rights could be sold before Jan. 20, Inauguration Day.”
The Wildlife Refuge isn’t the only pristine part of Alaska threatened with development.
Just last month, the Trump administration proposed allowing logging in the Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska. At more than 16 million acres, Tongass is the largest intact temperate rainforest remaining in North America.
Critics say that could threaten not only the ancient forest, with some trees 1,000 years old, but also diverse wildlife, vital salmon fishing industry and profitable tourism.
