A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Trump administration plans to open a large area of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas leasing. The refuge is the size of South Carolina and includes one of the largest stretches of undeveloped wilderness in the U.S. It's also believed to hold significant oil reserves. Liz Ruskin is the Washington reporter for Alaska Public Media. Joins us now from Washington, D.C. Liz, there's been a lot of back-and-forth over drilling in this wildlife refuge. What's happening now?
LIZ RUSKIN, BYLINE: Well, the new announcement is kind of the old announcement, going back to what the first Trump administration imposed. We as a country have been debating what to do with this upper right-hand corner of Alaska for a really long time. Democratic administrations try to keep drilling rigs out. Republicans want the area leased and drilled and the oil flowing down the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. The state of Alaska wants that, so do a lot of Alaska Native groups, especially on the North Slope. They want the economic development and tax revenue. But drilling is opposed by other Alaska Native groups and by those who say it would be terrible for caribou and polar bear and climate change.
So during the first Trump administration, Congress finally managed to open the refuge to drilling. But it seems like for the oil industry, maybe that came too late because no major oil company bid when drilling rights were auctioned. The big oil developments that we've seen in the Arctic, like the Willow project, they are outside of the refuge.
MARTÍNEZ: There were other projects in Alaska that the Biden administration blocked that the Trump administration is reviving. What are those projects?
RUSKIN: They're reviving two proposals to build roads in parts of Alaska that don't have roads now. You have to fly in. Maybe the most significant is the Ambler Road. This would be a 200-mile road in northwest Alaska through an undeveloped area. It would open access to a place where there's a lot of interest in mining. The state government supports this road. The Trump administration wants it. But a bit of it would cut through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, so that's controversial. And also, dozens of tribes and people in the region worry that the project will damage fish streams and harm caribou and other wildlife and generally ruin people's ability to live off the land. They say they'll try to block it in court.
MARTÍNEZ: OK, what about that other road?
RUSKIN: OK, that's in southwest Alaska. It would link an isolated town called King Cove to a former Air Force base that has an all-weather airport. And that road would cut through a wildlife refuge. The Trump administration wants to move past the controversy by swapping refuge land for land owned by the local Alaska Native Corporation.
MARTÍNEZ: Liz, why does it feel like Alaska is constantly this partisan political battleground, so to speak?
RUSKIN: Well, the federal government owns more than half of the state. And Alaska is where America goes to fight about public land policy. Democratic administrations, you know, mostly want to preserve natural areas. Republican administrations mostly want economic development. And with each administration undoing what the previous one did, there's not a lot of progress in either direction and these proposals remain in limbo for a long time. I heard from Senator Lisa Murkowski yesterday. And she said maybe, just maybe, one of these decisions will stick this time.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Liz Ruskin with Alaska Public Media. Liz, thanks.
RUSKIN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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