TAKE ACTION

Take Action today to help protect America's Arctic!

In the midst of a government shutdown, the Trump administration began the process to sell off up to 16 million acres of public lands in the Western Arctic for oil and gas drilling. The Bureau of Land Management is calling for nominations on all available unleased areas for oil and gas development in the Reserve, kicking off a 30-day public comment period.

WE NEED YOUR VOICE! The BLM needs to hear from people like you that Americans do not want more oil and gas development in the fragile ecosystem of America’s Arctic.

Add your name to the public comment below and we’ll help you submit it to the Bureau of Land Management’s public comment portal.

To the Bureau of Land Management,

I am writing to express my opposition to the current call for nominations for new oil and gas leases on all available unleased areas in the Western Arctic Reserve (NPR-A).

The public lands in America’s Western Arctic are vital to wildlife, Indigenous communities, and climate mitigation.and represent an irreplaceable natural heritage that is unique to the United States of America.

The rampant privatization of public lands for private, corporate profit is not aligned with the mission of the Bureau of Land Management or American values. The disregard for conservation, Special Area designations, and Indigenous consultation also fails to meet the requirements of the original 1976 National Petroleum Reserves Production Act, which explicitly mandates maximum protections for Special Areas and wildlife.

As existing oil and gas projects like the Willow Complex already fall short of projected revenues for stakeholders (Alaska Department of Revenue, 2025), we should be exercising restraint in the race to fast-track new oil and gas development in this fragile landscape.

Advancing the oil and gas industry’s agenda at a time when our government is shut down, when federal workers are missing paychecks, shows us exactly where this administration’s priorities lie..

Americans deserve better than losing our most magnificent wild places to corporate exploitation. STOP the fast-track leasing of public lands in the NPR-A and America’s Arctic at large.

CreatorToolkitSeismic

GET OUR FREE CREATOR TOOLKIT!

Free Video Assets, Facts, and More!

Explore our communications guide along with a special Creator Library featuring vertical video assets from National Geographic Photographer Florian Schulz that YOU can use to help #ProtectTheArctic!

Download Toolkit

Imagine selling off iconic landscapes like the Grand Canyon or Yosemite’s Half Dome to the highest bidder. Pretty crazy, right? But that’s what’s happening in America’s Arctic. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act directed the BLM to hold at least five lease sales in the Western Arctic over the next 10 years, offering a minimum of 4 million acres at each sale. As such, this is expected to be only the first of many negative actions taken by the Administration with devastating consequences for the environment, wildlife, and the Indigenous communities that rely on protections for this region, specifically around Teshekpuk Lake. Teshekpuk Lake and its surroundings are vital for the Teshekpuk Caribou Herd, providing calving grounds, summer habitat, and migration routes. The area is also integral to Indigenous subsistence practices, supporting hunting, fishing, and gathering.

This is a real moment of crisis for American public lands in the Arctic. The budget bill signed into law on July 4, 2025 guts protections for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Western Arctic (NPR-A). The law mandates extensive leasing for resource extraction while Secretary Burgum is moving forward with plans to strip Special Areas protections from the Western Arctic (NPR-A).

Why? The same reason the Administration is trying to slash programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and education grants - so they can "afford" to fund massive tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and fast-track the interests of their corporate allies.

But the numbers don’t add up. A recent congressionally mandated Arctic lease sale raised zero dollars and added $1 billion to the deficit. In addition, it can take up to a decade before new projects in the Arctic produce even a drop of oil. At that point, the vast majority of revenues from new Arctic oil projects required under this proposal wouldn't even go to the US Treasury. In fact, after 2035, the bill creates a new revenue split that sends 70% of all revenues from fossil fuel development on federal lands in America's Arctic to the State of Alaska.

The Administration's willful disregard for common-sense economics and pandering to Big Oil corporate donors is an all-out assault on one of America’s wildest and most fragile ecosystems - millions of acres of public land that impact every single person on Earth.

WHAT'S GOING ON? | We have until Nov 20, 2025 to let the BLM know Americans don't support fast-tracked oil and gas leasing in the Western Arctic (NPR-A).

American taxpayers are already $1 BILLION in the hole on President Trump’s previous attempt to sell off the Arctic Refuge (ANWR) to the highest bidder to afford massive tax breaks for the country’s wealthiest. Now the Willow Complex in America’s Western Arctic is also falling short, projected to cost Alaska’s taxpayers more than they’ll get back from ConocoPhillips.

Despite this record of economic failures, the Administration continues to fast-track corporate giveaways across America’s Arctic, from the Willow complex to the proposed Ambler Road mining corridor.

Enough is enough. Our public lands and wild places are worth more than being irreparably damaged by corporate welfare giveaways.

WHO IS DOING IT? | Currently, the Bureau of Land Management Under Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum

We have until Nov 20th to let the BLM know Americans don't want more corporate handouts in America's Arctic.

WHY DOES IT MATTER? | America's Arctic is too important to Planet Earth to be gifted to corporate interests.

FIRST, oil and gas profits are already at record highs. The administration's push to drill the American Arctic while derailing renewable energy projects and removing solar and wind power from federal energy programs is a blatant corporate handout at the expense of everyday Americans. Our federal agencies have a responsibility to ensure the government works FOR its citizens. Instead, it's actively helping one of the wealthiest and most polluting industries in the world at the expense of the American people...

SECOND, the Arctic is warming 4x faster than the rest of the planet. A healthy Arctic stabilizes the jet stream, reducing extreme weather events. It's an enormous carbon sink for the entire planet, mitigating the worst impacts of climate change all around the globe.

Recent natural disasters like the devastation caused across Western Alaska by Typhoon Halong only underscore how much is at stake, and how much coastal and Indigenous communities bear the burden of our collective action.

The Western Arctic is the ancestral homeland of Indigenous Peoples who depend upon access to clean water and unpolluted resources for traditional livelihoods and food security. And it is vital habitat for American wildlife like polar bears, bowhead whales, caribou, and wolves.

Watch the video below to learn more on how America's Arctic impacts everyone on Earth, and and explore the entire 5-part series of 1 minute videos for how the Arctic impacts global biodiversity, economies, climate and food webs.

OK! WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT? | Add your name to the public comment period and help spread the word on social media!

Follow @ProTheArctic to stay up to date, and check out our Creator Toolkit for resources like maps, videos, and more to share your own content!