Proposed oil exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could damage sensitive tundra for decades, threatening wildlife and places Indigenous communities depend on for food and cultural practices.
A legal challenge seeks to stop the refuge's leasing program before those harms unfold.
Here's what to know
According to Earthjustice, the refuge is the target of a seismic exploration application from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state-sponsored corporation known as AIDEA.
The public has received neither details of the proposed activity nor an opportunity to comment. The Trump administration has acknowledged that federal agencies are evaluating at least one seismic application.
Seismic surveys help detect oil reserves deep underground. Seismic testing uses trucks to strike the ground with heavy metal plates. At 90,000 pounds, each truck weighs roughly as much as 14 pickup trucks combined.
The hammering comes from metal plates driven against the terrain by vehicles known as "thumper" trucks.
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"The damage left behind can last a human lifetime, or longer," Earthjustice emphasized in an Instagram post. The video in the post, provided by the Cornell Lab, focuses on the harm exploration can cause before Arctic drilling begins.
Earthjustice attorney Hannah Foster noted that the government's own analysis predicts the activity could kill dozens of cubs. Across vast stretches of the refuge, seismic testing could also damage slow-recovering terrain and potentially kill polar bears.
"Polar bears are in serious trouble," Foster said.
The environmental studies behind the Coastal Plain leasing program are central to Earthjustice's argument in federal court in Alaska. The group says the Trump administration improperly minimized those risks.
More background
The Coastal Plain encompasses 1.56 million acres of wetlands, tundra, and braided rivers, supporting polar bears and caribou as well as millions of migrating birds.
Only AIDEA and one small oil company hold leases, and revenue amounts to a fraction of congressional projections. No major oil companies bid during sales in 2021, 2025, and 2026. Those financial results fall short of the rationale used to open the area to leasing in 2017.
Production drilling in the nearby National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska would bypass public comment and undergo shorter environmental reviews under proposed regulatory changes, according to Earthjustice.
Exploration projects are also the target of an announced categorical exclusion intended to exempt them from the National Environmental Policy Act's project-by-project review process.
What's being done?
Earthjustice and co-counsel Natural Resources Defense Council represent the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth U.S., and NRDC. They want the court to invalidate both the refuge leasing program and the leases based on the disputed environmental analyses.
Earthjustice attorney Erik Grafe said: "What we're seeing is a lack of transparency in the Arctic Refuge and new regulations for the Western Arctic to do the oil industry's bidding while completely cutting the public out of decisions. At stake are some of the most ecologically significant and treasured public lands in the world, as well as imperiled species like polar bears and caribou that Indigenous people have relied on for millennia."
Where can I learn more?
The fight over drilling in the Arctic Refuge reflects broader tensions over wildlife protection, resource development, and access to public lands.
• The U.S. Forest Service proposes opening most forest trails to ATVs, dirt bikes, and 4x4s.
• In Alaska, an albino caribou appeared on the tundra after decades without a sighting.
• Alaska's gasline agency seeks $2.5 million to sustain its pipeline push after a tax bill failed.
• Alaskans are losing fishing rights while corporations waste millions of pounds of catch.
• An Alaska tribe and conservation groups sued to stop logging across 5,000 old-growth Tongass acres.
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