Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Trump opens Alaska wilderness to drilling and mining
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Friday, October 24, 2025
Sheenjek River, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Photo: Alexis Bonogofsky for USFWS ([link removed])
The Trump administration on Thursday finalized plans to open Alaska’s most sensitive lands to industrial development ([link removed]) , approving oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and a controversial road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the decision to open all 1.56 million acres of ANWR’s coastal plain ([link removed]) , reversing protections that had been put in place under the Biden administration. In January, a congressionally-mandated lease sale in the refuge failed to draw any bids ([link removed]) .
The area is the calving ground for the Porcupine Caribou Herd, the foundation of the Gwich’in people's food security and culture. “Opening the coastal plain is a direct threat to our people, our culture and our future,” said Kristen Moreland ([link removed]) , executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee. “A leasing program that would open the entire Coastal Plain completely ignores the impacts that oil and gas development would have on the land, on wildlife, and on our communities.”
In a related move, the Trump administration announced it had advanced a land swap to build a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge ([link removed]) , one of the state's last intact costal wildlands. The refuge’s eelgrass beds feed hundreds of thousands of migratory birds.
“I worry every day about what’s going to happen to the brant and emperor geese if there’s a road in Izembek,” Chief Edgar Tall Sr. of the Native Village of Hooper Bay said ([link removed]) . “We need the brant and emperor geese because they’re nutritious and fatty from feeding in Izembek. … If the birds disappear because of the Izembek road, our community could disappear too.”
** Oil, electric, sugar money paying for East Wing destruction
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Oil billionaire Harold Hamm and Florida utility company NextEra energy are among the donors ([link removed]) paying for President Trump's destruction of the White House's East Wing ([link removed]) . Hamm is a longtime benefactor of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ([link removed]) , while Burgum's deputy secretary Kate MacGregor is a former NextEra executive. Other donors ([link removed]) to the president's ballroom project include Pepe and Emilia Fanjul, whose family owns Florida Crystals, a sugar company that has long been linked to pollution in the Everglades ([link removed])
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** Quick hits
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Trump administration opens Arctic refuge, approves Izembek road
New York Times ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed]) | Anchorage Daily News ([link removed]) | Washington Post ([link removed]) | Alaska Beacon ([link removed]) | The Hill ([link removed]) | The Guardian
([link removed])
The Trump administration is erasing American history told by public lands and waters
Center for American Progress ([link removed])
Colorado's reintroduced wolves are heading towards New Mexico
Summit Daily ([link removed])
Wild horses held at Colorado prison complex cost federal government $23 million over five years
Colorado Sun ([link removed])
The government shutdown is going to kill bears
Wes Siler's Newsletter ([link removed])
Anonymous donors just reopened a closed national monument for one week only
SFGate ([link removed])
Wyoming uranium company opts out of Trump's fast track permit
Wyoming Public Media ([link removed])
New poll: Americans' views on climate change, energy, and public lands in 15 charts
University of Chicago ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it.”
—Former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton ([link removed])
** Picture This
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@utstateparks ([link removed])
“NEVER GIVE UP. NEVER SURRENDER!!”🚀
Did you know one of the most iconic scenes from the movie Galaxy Quest was filmed right here in Utah at Goblin Valley State Park??
The park’s unique, alien-looking rock formations made it the perfect backdrop for “Epsilon Gorniar II,”the planet where the movie’s heroes face off with blue aliens and The Gorignak and fight for the galaxy! 👽✨
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