Trump Administration OKs Oil, Gas Drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

An airplane flies over caribou from the Porcupine Caribou Herd on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska, in an undated file photo. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP

The Trump administration approved an oil and gas leasing program within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a 1.56-million-acre swath of land on Alaska’s north shore along the Beaufort Sea.

The Department of the Interior on Aug. 17 approved the program, with Secretary David Bernhardt signing the Record of Decision, which will determine where oil and gas leasing will take place in a section of the coastal plain known as the “1002 area.”