Draft settlement would protect ANWR leasing terms

The Iñupiat community that lives on the Arctic refuge's Coastal Plain wants the oil leasing to go forward, and a new draft settlement would help make sure it can. The deal would permanently bar the government from shrinking the acreage or surface access for leasing there below what Congress required in the 2017 tax law.

It resolves lawsuits from the State of Alaska and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority over restrictions imposed under President Biden, which the state and industry groups blamed for a January 2025 lease sale that drew zero bids.

Kaktovik, the only village inside the refuge, has pushed for development. Corporation president Charles Lampe has called the Biden-era limits an obstacle to Iñupiat self-determination. Environmental groups and other Alaska Native communities living outside of the refuge oppose drilling on the plain, warning of damage to habitat and to subsistence hunting.

The stakes are large on paper — the area is estimated to hold a mean of 7.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil. But even after the restrictions eased, a June 2026 sale offering about 689,000 acres drew bids on just 72,049 of them, for $3.74 million. Legal challenges to the broader program remain active.