Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Don't Rubber Stamp Big Oil in the Western Arctic

America’s Western Arctic, also referred to as the NPR-A, is one of the most exceptional and climate-critical landscapes in the country and the world. What happens here impacts everyone on the planet.

America’s Western Arctic, also referred to as the NPR-A, is one of the most exceptional and climate-critical landscapes in the country and the world. What happens here impacts everyone on the planet.



The Western Arctic, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, spans over 23 million acres of public land along the north slope of Alaska and supports an abundance of wildlife, Indigenous peoples who have subsisted off of these lands for millennia, essential breeding grounds for the world’s migratory bird populations, and wild, climate-stabilizing landscapes too precious to lose.

Despite the region’s vital importance to Indigenous communities, wildlife, and global climate stability, the Bureau of Land Management is now proposing a sweeping new system for approving future oil and gas development in the Western Arctic. The proposal originates from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association and eliminates environmental review for future oil and gas projects. 

This means that instead of evaluating each oil and gas project’s individual impact on wildlife, Indigenous communities, and the ecosystem, this new rulemaking would force the agency to issue permits in as little as 60 days. This rule change will open the floodgates for massive oil and gas development and lock in irreparable damage that every American will absorb – from lost wildlife habitat and degraded water to the increase of severe weather events.

BLM’s own analysis is already sounding the alarm that the development expected under its proposed rule could significantly restrict subsistence uses in Nuiqsut, Atqasuk, and Utqiaġvik—communities whose food security, culture, and way of life remain deeply connected to caribou and the lands and waters of the Western Arctic.

The question raised by this proposal is bigger than any single road, pipeline, or drill pad: Is unregulated industrial oil and gas development more important than the serious consequences to the people who depend on those lands and waters? 

What’s being done in the northern reaches of Alaska – from what they hope is far from public scrutiny – will be used as a playbook for public lands across the country to shut out the American public and let oil and gas executives take the reins. The same logic that justifies ignoring environmental and human impacts is the same logic that gets applied to the next proposal, and the next – whether that's a watershed in Colorado, a sage grouse habitat in Wyoming, or a stretch of coastline in California.

We have until November 9, 2026 (10 p.m. Alaska Time) to make our voice heard. Take action today to tell the Bureau of Land Management to reject any permitting shortcut in the Western Arctic.