Senate votes, sends Arctic Coastal Plain leasing restoration to Trump for signature

The US Senate voted Thursday to overturn the Biden administration’s restrictive 2024 Record of Decision that effectively shut down oil and gas development across most of the 1002 Area, the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Senators advanced House Joint Res. 131, the House version championed by Alaska Congressman Nick Begich, so the measure can go directly to President Trump’s desk without another House vote.

Although the Senate began debate Wednesday on its companion bill, Senate Joint Resolution 91, the chamber ultimately prioritized Begich’s resolution to expedite the process after the House passed it on Nov. 18.

The Congressional Review Act resolutions dismantle the Biden Administration’s unilateral rewrite of the Coastal Plain program, which removed more than 74% of the 1002 Area from leasing and piled on restrictive stipulations designed to make development impossible on the remaining acreage. In January, the restrictions were so onerous that the one lease opportunity received no bids.

Sen. Dan Sullivan called the Biden Administration’s actions “one of 70 executive orders and actions targeting Alaska,” and a direct affront to the Native communities of the North Slope who have long supported responsible development.

“The Biden administration’s 2024 ROD to restrict responsible development in the Coastal Plain of ANWR blatantly defied the clear language that the Alaska congressional delegation wrote in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” Sullivan said. “This action also cancelled the voices of the Native people of the region who overwhelmingly support responsible development, because it builds vital infrastructure, supports their communities, and has literally led to their residents living longer.”

Sullivan said the Senate’s vote puts Alaska “on the cusp of righting this wrong, rolling back the lawless lock-up of ANWR, and unleashing good-paying jobs and opportunity for Alaska’s working families.”

Congressman Begich, whose resolution now advances to the president, emphasized the long-term national and strategic consequences of restoring access to the 1002 Area.

“For years, the Biden administration ignored the law and imposed restrictive policies that effectively shut down the 1002 Area, despite its immense strategic value to Alaska and to the nation,” he said. “H.J. Res. 131 reverses the Biden administration’s unlawful and restrictive Record of Decision … an area Congress specifically set aside for responsible development more than forty years ago.”

Congressman Begich said the Alaska delegation has “worked tirelessly to reverse these harmful decisions” and that today’s vote puts Alaska back on track to supply the affordable, reliable energy the nation needs. “America is strongest when Alaska is empowered to responsibly develop its resources,” he said.

Congress established ANWR in 1980, setting aside the 1.56-million-acre Coastal Plain for further study and potential energy development. In 2017, Congress formally established an oil and gas program for the 1002 Area and mandated two lease sales by 2024. The region is estimated to contain 7.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil that are crucial to boosting throughput in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which now runs at just a quarter of its peak capacity.

But in December 2024, the Biden Administration scrapped the 2020 Record of Decision and implemented a new plan that closed most of the Coastal Plain and effectively barred development on the rest. Only months later, a lease sale structured under the restrictive terms yielded no bids.

Earlier this year, the Government Accountability Office determined that the administration’s revised ROD qualifies as a “major rule” under the Congressional Review Act, clearing the way for the resolutions that passed both chambers.

The final restoration of the 1002 Area for oil and gas exploration and development now awaits President Trump’s signature.