On November 18, the House voted to repeal a plan issued by the Biden Administration in 2024 governing leasing for oil and gas development in the 1.5-million-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) through use of the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a blunt procedural maneuver that allows Congress to repeal agency rules and curtail similar administrative actions in the future.  

By repealing the 2024 Record of Decision (ROD)—the framework for managing the ANWR Oil and Gas Leasing Program—Congress is clearing the way for a new framework that offers more acres with fewer restrictions. A companion measure has already been introduced in the Senate at the end of October. If passed by the Senate, not only will the 2024 plan be nullified, but the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)—the agency overseeing the ANWR leasing program—will be barred from issuing a similar "rule" (including a comparable ROD), even if circumstances change and a new environmental review is completed. 

This is not the first time Congress has doubled down on efforts to open all acres within the Coastal Plain of Arctic Refuge to oil and gas leasing, despite previous lease sales drawing little industry interest and yielding abysmal results for taxpayers. The recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) requires BLM to hold four new oil and gas lease sales in ANWR under the same terms and conditions as the 2020 ROD issued by the first Trump administration, which allowed leasing across the entire Coastal Plain with minimal restrictions on surface-disturbing activities associated with oil and gas development. 

History of the ANWR Leasing Program  

ANWR is the largest refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge System, with nearly 40 percent designated as Wilderness. Its 1.5-million-acre, non-Wilderness Coastal Plain—known as the 1002 Area—can be considered for development only if Congress authorizes it. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA, P.L. 115-97) opened the 1002 Area for oil and gas development, mandating two lease sales within seven years, each offering at least 400,000 acres. These sales were projected to raise almost $1 billion to offset the TCJA's $1.9 trillion price tag but generated less than one percent of that amount. 

  In the first Trump Administration BLM issued a plan making all 1.5 million acres of the 1002 Area available for lease. The first sale in January 2021 offered 22 parcels covering 1,089,053 acres. Of these, 11 sold. Only two were purchased by private companies; the rest were acquired by Alaska's state-owned development corporation, which later rescinded bids on two parcels. The sale raised just $16.5 million—split evenly between the federal government and the State of Alaska 

But leasing was paused shortly after by the Biden Administrationand in June 2021, the Department of the Interior pointed to serious analytical and legal flaws in the environmental review and 2020 plan and maintained the pause until a new review was completed. The two private companies canceled their leases in 2022. In 2023, the remaining seven federal oil and gas leases in the Arctic Refuge were rescinded, but a court order in March 2025 reinstated them. 

BLM completed the supplemental review in November 2024 and issued an updated leasing plan the following month. The 2024 plan offered the congressionally mandated minimum of 400,000 acres, with additional surface development restrictions and lease stipulations, based on development potential and protections for key resources and wildlife. But interest in the  second auction was even lower than the 2020 sale and received no bids when they were held this January, resulting in no revenue for federal or Alaska taxpayers. 

119th Congress and Trump Administration Push for More Leasing 

As part of the Administration's agenda to dramatically expand oil and gas developmentPresident Trump issued an executive order to open more lands in the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas drilling under fewer restrictions. Specifically, the EO called to rescind the leasing moratorium, re-instate previously rescinded leases—365,755 acres leased by a public corporation authorized by the State of Alaska—and repeal the 2024 leasing framework with the 2020 ROD.  

Then in the summer of 2025, OBBBA included language mandating four new oil and gas lease sales in ANWR: the first within 1 year of the bill's enactment (7/4/2026), the second within 3 years (7/4/2028), the third within 5 years (7/4/2030), and the fourth within 7 years (7/4/2032). Each sale must offer no fewer than 400,000 acres — roughly a quarter of the 1.56-million-acres open to oil and gas development. The law also requires the same terms and conditions as the first lease sale conducted under the 2020 ROD.  

On October 23, the Department of the Interior announced a new ROD that reopened 1,563,500 acres of the Coastal Plain for oil and gas development and restored the rescinded leases. 

Taxpayer Costs of Future ANWR Leasing 

While the previous two lease sales generated less than one percent of the $905 million taxpayers were promised, the OBBBA once again counts projected ANWR lease revenue to offset new spending, estimating $452 million in new revenue between FY2025 and 2034. Yet TCS analysis shows that even under optimistic scenarios, future ANWR lease sales are likely to yield just $3 and $30 million in federal revenue, based on 20-year average bids for Alaska's North Slope. 

The promises of lease revenue that may never materialize come with substantial fiscal and environmental risks. Drilling in ANWR would shift future administrative costs and environmental liabilities on taxpayers— impacting outdoor recreationists, hunters, and anglers, and the general public.  

This latest move to overturn the 2024 plan and revert to the 2020 plan is another blow to taxpayers, who are already footing the bill for administrative expenses and could be left responsible for cleanup and restoration in one of the most sensitive, remote regions in the world.