The Trump administration on Thursday finalized plans to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to potential oil and gas drilling, reviving a decades-long political and environmental battle over one of America’s most pristine and contested landscapes.

The move fulfills a campaign promise by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to restore energy exploration in the Arctic region - revered by the Indigenous Gwich’in people and home to migratory caribou herds, polar bears and millions of birds. The administration’s recently passed tax and spending legislation calls for at least four lease sales within the refuge over the next decade.

Why It Matters

Environmentalists say both the Arctic drilling plan and the Izembek road project threaten fragile ecosystems that have lon

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