What happens next in ANWR
In its final weeks, the Trump Administration sold the drilling rights to portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – but it’s not over yet.
For more than six decades, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has been a pristine treasure, free from oil drilling and the toxic pollution it spews. Despite all-out efforts from Big Polluters, federal protections have kept ANWR as nearly 20 million acres of untouched wild lands.
Until the final days of the Trump Administration.
"They held the lease... but no one showed up”
In the last days of the Trump Administration, officials rushed through nine 10-year leases for oil drilling in the refuge’s pristine and fragile coastal plain – a move that was only possible due to a provision tucked into a 2017 tax law.