Establish oil and gas leasing in the ANWR Coastal Plain (Section 1002 Area)

Done

Printed page 523 16. Department of the Interior

“Comply with the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to establish a competitive leasing and development program in the Coastal Plain, an area of Alaska that was set aside by Congress specifically for future oil and gas exploration and development.”

What has happened

Jun 5, 2026 Done
BLM held the 2026 Coastal Plain lease sale, the first under Public Law 119-21: 58 tracts (688,829 acres) offered, bids on five tracts (72,490 acres) from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and Hex Energy LLC, high bids totalling $3,741,528. A competitive leasing program is in operation; the 2025 sale (January 10, 2025) had drawn no bids.
- BLM — Coastal Plain Oil & Gas Lease Sale, June 5, 2026: Bid Recap
  Primary Executive branch Jun 5, 2026
- BLM notice: Notice of 2026 Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Lease Sale
  Primary Executive branch Apr 20, 2026
- BLM Alaska oil and gas lease sales page (Coastal Plain 2026 sale, June 5, 2026; bid recap and results map)
  Primary Executive branch Jun 5, 2026
Jul 4, 2025 Partially done
Section 50104 of Public Law 119-21 (the reconciliation act) requires Interior to hold at least four more area-wide Coastal Plain lease sales within ten years, each offering at least 400,000 acres on the 2020 record of decision's terms.
- Public Law 119-21 — An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14 (§50104, Alaska oil and gas leasing)
  Primary Congress Jul 4, 2025
Jan 20, 2025 Attempted
Executive Order 14153 (Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential) directed Interior to rescind the 2024 supplemental EIS and record of decision for the Coastal Plain program, reinstate the 2020 EIS and record of decision, and assess whether the canceled 2021 leases could be reinstated.
- Executive Order 14153 — Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential
  Primary Executive branch Jan 20, 2025
- Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential (Executive Order 14153), §3(a)(iii)–(vi) on the Coastal Plain
  Primary Executive branch Jan 20, 2025

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Lease issuance after the sale (and whether the canceled 2021 AIDEA leases were reinstated) was not confirmed on an allowlisted page; the bid recap shows the sale result only.
Litigation: the CourtListener keyword search lists Center for Biological Diversity v. Burgum, D.D.C. 1:25-cv-04285 (filed 2025-12-10) and Nuiqsut Trilateral, Inc. v. Burgum, D.D.C. 1:26-cv-00239 (filed 2026-01-28), both found under the “Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” keyword; the docket pages could not be read, so they are leads. No injunction against the 2026 sale was found.
Reviewed 2026-10-01. This was flagged as a possible reversal, and on reading it points the other way. On 2026-07-07 the Justice Department filed a stipulation dismissing the State of Alaska’s and AIDEA’s suits against the 2024 Coastal Plain leasing program. The settlement “concedes that the 2024 Program violated the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” by closing 75% of the Coastal Plain, imposing unreasonable surface-use restrictions and capping surface disturbance at 995 acres instead of the statute’s “up to 2,000 acres”. It also prohibits Interior “from repeating those violations in any future decision governing the Program” (justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-dismisses-alaska-lawsuit-conceding-biden-era-oil-and-gas-leasing-program). That supports the done program. No event: the June 2026 sale already carries the Status.
Interior’s own 2025-01-08 release “Arctic Refuge Lease Sale Yields No Interest” concerns the sale held on 2025-01-10, before the tracking window; cited here for context only.

Action: create
Object: Competitive leasing and development program in the ANWR Coastal Plain
ID: 1469