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Alaska Beacon announced on March 25 that a federal judge in Anchorage, Alaska, has ruled that the US Department of the Interior acted illegally when it cancelled oil and gas leases held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Judge Sharon Gleason stated that the Department was required to obtain a court order before repealing AIDEA’s leases. The decision vacates the Department’s lease cancellation, clearing the way for oil and gas drilling in the Refuge’s coastal plain. (Alaska Beacon).
This ruling has profound implications for Indigenous communities, particularly the Gwich’in people. They have long opposed resource exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s (ANWR) coastal plain, an area they refer to as “Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit” or “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins”. Drilling in this area could disrupt the caribou population and their calving territory, undermining food security and the Gwich’in’s culture and traditional way of life. They have been actively lobbying against opening the plain for drilling for decades, emphasizing that the destruction of these calving grounds would be tantamount to cultural genocide. As such, they have expressed profound disappointment with the ruling, vowing to continue their fight against resource exploration in the refuge. However, despite the legal opening for oil exploration, recent lease sales have seen a marked lack of interest from major oil companies. The most recent auction, held in January 2025, received zero bids from energy companies, reflecting hesitation by the industry. Factors contributing to this include the high development costs, environmental concerns, and the potential for reputational risks associated with drilling in this sensitive area. Every major American bank refuses to fund drilling in the refuge and over twenty insurance firms implemented policies to protect the ANWR. This absence of industry interest raises questions about the viability of extractive development in the refuge and suggests that, even with legal permission, drilling activities might not materialize to the extent that was previously expected. (Alaska Beacon, Alaska Wilderness League, Environment America, Indigenous Watchdog, Insure Our Future, Reuters, The Hill)
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