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‘America’s Serengeti’: Oil, Gas, and the Fight for Native Inclusion in Alaska’s Arctic Refuge [1]
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Date: 2025-01-06
On January 9th, the United States Department of the Interior will hold the second of two scheduled auctions for oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a 19-million-acre expanse in Alaska’s North Slope Borough, an equivalent to a county in Alaska’s jurisdictions, that has been a focal point of drilling controversy for over six decades.
During his first term, President Trump included a provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that would make the ANWR available for oil and gas drilling, mandating that two lease sales be underway by the end of 2024. With the support of a Republican majority in the Senate, this historic legislation opened ANWR to drilling for the first time.
The area in the coastal plain that is up for lease is estimated to contain 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
In 1960, the Eisenhower Administration established the ANWR, affectionately dubbed “America’s Serengeti,’ as an area of biological significance.
“That was a major victory for those who wanted to keep it out of development,” said Dr. Scott L. Montgomery, lecturer at the School of International Studies at the University of Washington.
The ANWR is known worldwide for its unique biodiversity as a home to charismatic species like polar bears, wolves, and the caribou that are sacred to the Gwich’in, a North Slope indigenous group.
“It is a migration pathway and a habitation for many large and also a migratory species,” said Montgomery.
Oil and gas operations elicit mixed responses from Alaskan natives, however. While some worry that drilling activity will hurt vulnerable wildlife and subsistence living, others say the oil and gas industry funds important infrastructure for their communities.
Oil and Gas Operations Fund Infrastructure in Rural Alaska
“Our budget every single year is absolutely tied to the kinds of revenue that we get from the price of oil, ” said Dr. A.L. Lovecraft, professor of Political Science and director of the Center for Arctic Policy Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Ninety-five percent of the North Slope Borough’s budget comes from taxes on the oil and gas industry.
According to a 2024 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) report, oil and gas operations contributed to almost $1.4 billion in economic output on Alaska’s BLM-managed lands, accounting for 81% of total economic output generated on federal land. Meanwhile, recreation on BLM land accounted for about 3% of total economic output, or $48.1 million.
In the North Slope Borough, oil and gas extraction made up 48% of all employment in 2023, compared to about 1.4% of employment in the rest of non-metro counties in the United States, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit research organization.
But most of those jobs are filled by transient workers, not natives of the North Slope. The majority of full-time North Slope residents work for the local government.
However, Alaska’s oil and gas industry provides opportunities beyond direct employment.
Lovecraft mentioned hiring a student research assistant through an internship funded by the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC), one of twelve regional corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.
Unlike reservations in the lower 48, Alaska Natives have regional corporations like the ASRC. These corporations operate like traditional businesses, benefiting their shareholders—who are Alaska Native peoples—by generating revenue from industries such as oil and gas. Currently, the ASRC has over 13,000 shareholders who receive dividends. Since its establishment in 1972, the ASRC has distributed more than $1 billion in dividends.
Many leaders of the Iñupiat, an indigenous people native to Alaska’s North Slope Borough, say that oil and gas operations can be good for native communities if conducted responsibly.
“Before oil and gas, you couldn't graduate high school and stay in the North Slope,” said Nagruk Harcharek, president of the Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, a nonprofit organization that advocates for Alaska’s Iñupiat people. “Now there's K-12 schools in every North Slope village."
Harcharek credited revenue from the oil and gas industry with funding the establishment of search and rescue teams and improving home heating in the region. But regardless of the oil and gas industry’s potential benefits to his community, he emphasized the importance of having a seat at the table where decisions about their land are made, rather than being sidelined by oil executives and presidential administrations.
“We don’t want to hear about things through the news media,” said Harcharek. He said they want to be included before decisions are announced publicly.
Harcharek said that the controversial Willow Project, a ConocoPhillips drilling project in the North Slope, west of the ANWR, was a good example of what it looks like to engage Alaskan natives. He said they were consulted “early and often” in the decision-making process.
The Risks of Drilling in the Arctic
Drilling in the Arctic raises significant environmental concerns, including the acceleration of climate change and potential disruption to vulnerable wildlife. It can also be costly due to short work seasons and limited existing infrastructure.
And according to climate data from NOAA, temperature has increased more in Alaska’s North Slope Borough compared to any other region in the state since 1970. That, in turn, has destabilized ice, making snowmobile travel more hazardous. In a state twice the size of Texas with only 700,000 residents spread across approximately 200 communities, snowmobiles are often one of the few viable modes of transportation in remote areas.
Parts of the North Slope Borough are also important breeding and hunting grounds for caribou. And some Alaskan natives worry about how devastating oil spills will disrupt migration patterns and harm traditional ways of life.
Others Alaskans are concerned that climate change will melt ice and the permafrost, leading to hazardous hunting conditions as individuals risk falling through the ice and face challenges storing food in traditional underground ice cellars.
“The indigenous population in these villages rely on subsistence practices,” said Lovecraft. “Both to be physically healthy, and of course to ensure that language and culture continue."
Hunting is more than just a hobby in many native villages with high poverty rates. Hunting is a method of survival, said Lovecraft. “[Drilling] also comes with all of this other baggage[...]Problems related to health, indoor health, indoor air quality, outdoor air quality.”
The air toxins released during oil and gas activity include chemicals like benzene and n-hexane, which are thought to cause cancer and cause other health conditions, according to the EPA.
Arctic Drilling is Costly
But the costs of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic are not solely environmental; they also include significant economic challenges.
Despite Trump’s “Drill Baby, Drill” attitude, the success of Arctic drilling depends less on Republican policies and more on the global price of oil—a complex and fluctuating factor beyond President-elect’s direct control.
Many arctic oil exploration sites don’t have existing infrastructure like permanent roads or nearby oil and gas pipelines. Building out the necessary infrastructure can be cost prohibitive if the global price of oil isn’t high enough to make it worth the investment, according to Montgomery.
Much of this infrastructure can only be established in the winter, as ice roads are required to transport materials.
A 2024 brief from the Alaska Wilderness League estimated that oil prices need to be between $63 and $84 per barrel to be worth the costly investment. But the latest data from the Energy Information Administration predicted that the price of oil per barrel will hover around $61 to $63 per barrel in 2025.
The Trump Administration’s first lease sale in 2021 didn’t attract much interest. Only 11 of the 22 tracts available received any bids. That sale took place during the pandemic, a period marked by historically low oil prices—approximately $56 per barrel, according to the Energy Information Administration.
In December 2024, the price was $61, still modest compared to the $172 per barrel at the twenty-year high in 2008.
Montgomery said he thinks there will be small, if any, interest in the upcoming January 9th lease auction. “But I think there might be a few companies that would take the bait,” he said.
According to Montgomery, some companies might sit on the lease until oil prices improve before they start drilling procedures.
With any bids that do take place on January 9th, Harcharek hopes that the Iñupiat will be heard and included. "We get characterized as oil and gas advocates but that's not the truth,” he said.
Harcharek said they want a slice of the pie when profits are being made on their land. It just so happens that right now, those profits are coming from the oil and gas industry.
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