Why It Matters

A new Congressional Research Service report published August 7 examines the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) oil and gas leasing program, which has become a focal point for competing energy and environmental priorities.

The program has been a political football with each change in administration reversing or reinstating prior actions. Private industry participation remains thin despite favorable regulatory terms. In addition, ongoing litigation risk and the program's history of reversals across administrations continue to cloud the investment environment.

P.L. 115-97 was the first time Congress had explicitly authorized oil and gas development in ANWR. The Trump administration's January 2025 executive order rescinded Biden-era lease cancellations and ordered the Interior Department to issue development permits, signaling a policy reversal that has reshaped the program's regulatory framework.

Through fiscal year 2033, 50% of revenues from the oil and gas program are to be shared with the state of Alaska, and for fiscal years 2034 and thereafter, 70% of the revenues go to Alaska.

The Coastal Plain contains critical wildlife habitat for caribou and polar bears protected under the Endangered Species Act and serves as subsistence land for Alaska Native communities.

The Big Picture

The leasing program has experienced sharp reversals across administrations. The first lease sale on January 6, 2021, generated $14.4 million in bids and issued nine leases covering 437,804 acres. In September 2023, the Secretary of the Interior canceled the leases from the 2021 sale, citing fundamental legal deficiencies such as failure to analyze a reasonable range of alternatives and to properly quantify downstream greenhouse gas emissions. President Trump's January 2025 executive order reinstated the canceled leases and ordered agencies to issue authorizations. The second lease sale on January 10, 2025, received no bids. A third sale on June 5, 2026, generated $3.7 million in bids on five tracts covering 72,049 acres, with only the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and a private company, Hex Energy LLC, participating.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates 7.7 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil on federal lands in the Coastal Plain. Even as the Trump administration expanded the available acreage through a new decision making the entire 1.6 million-acre Coastal Plain available for leasing, bidding has contracted.

Alaska Native lands in and adjoining the Coastal Plain remain a complicating factor. A 1983 agreement stipulated that development would not occur on Native lands until Congress approved Coastal Plain development. BLM and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not complete the approval process for permits needed by Alaska Native corporations to conduct seismic testing on their lands.

The Bottom Line

Ongoing litigation risk and the program's history of reversals across administrations continue to cloud the investment environment. Environmental organizations including Earthjustice have challenged the October 2025 decision in federal court. The newly enacted legislation mandates four lease sales by specified dates, with at least 400,000 acres offered at each sale, but weak industry participation suggests the mandate may prove difficult to satisfy in practice.

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