Alaska
First lease sale in Alaska petroleum reserve in years draws strong interest despite pending lawsuits
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The first oil and gas lease sale held in years in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska was touted by officials Wednesday as the strongest to date, drawing hundreds of bids and interest from major oil companies despite pending legal challenges from environmentalists and some Indigenous groups.
It was the first sale in the reserve since 2019 and the first under a law passed by Congress last year calling for at least five lease sales there over a 10-year period, amid a renewed push by the Trump administration to expand oil and gas development in Alaska. The U.S. Department of Interior said 11 companies submitted bids on 187 tracts covering 1.3 million acres (526,000 hectares). The sale offered 625 tracts over about 5.5 million acres (2.2 million hectares).
State political leaders cheered the result, with Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy calling it a “major win for our state and our country.” Business, oil and gas and resource development groups issued a joint statement that said the “strong participation and unprecedented results underscore renewed investor confidence in Alaska’s North Slope and the state’s long-term resource potential.” Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, an advocacy group whose members include North Slope leaders, called the sale an important milestone.
The petroleum reserve is home to the large Willow oil project, authorized in 2023 by the Biden administration and currently under development by ConocoPhillips Alaska. The reserve, roughly the size of Indiana on Alaska’s North Slope, provides habitat for an array of wildlife, including caribou, bears, wolves and millions of migratory birds.
Critics of the drilling push have raised concerns about the potential impacts on parts of the reserve previously designated as special for their wildlife, subsistence or other values, including around Teshekpuk Lake. The lake is the largest in Alaska’s arctic region.
Kristen Miller, executive director of Alaska Wilderness League, in a statement called the region “one of the last truly wild places on Earth, home to millions of migrating birds, vast caribou herds and Indigenous communities whose lives are woven into this land.”
“We will spend every ounce of our energy making sure those leases never become drill pads,” she said.
Several lawsuits challenging the lease sale, the management plan underpinning it or related actions are pending.
Jeremy Lieb, an attorney with Earthjustice, which is representing conservation groups in one of the cases, in statement said amid climate change and high energy prices, “it’s clear that the best way forward is switching to low-cost, clean energy sources – not attempting to produce more expensive, ecologically destructive Arctic oil.”
In another case, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason this week stayed the Trump administration’s cancellation of a right of way issued to Nuiqsut Trilateral, Inc., an organization formed by the Native Village of Nuiqsut, Kuukpik Corporation and the City of Nuiqsut, until the group’s lawsuit challenging the cancellation is resolved.
The right of way, issued late in the Biden administration, allowed for restricting oil and gas development and was aimed at protecting the Teshekpuk caribou herd and habitat across roughly 1 million acres (405,000 hectares).
In the cancellation, a deputy Interior secretary cited “serious and fundamental legal deficiencies” in the issuance of the right of way.
Kevin Pendergast, Alaska state director for the Bureau of Land Management, did not mention Gleason’s decision during the livestreamed bid openings. The agency, in response to questions from The Associated Press, confirmed in a statement that lease offerings within the right of way were included in the sale.
“Any lease issuance for tracts within the right of way will be consistent with the court’s order,” the statement said.
Travis Annatoyn, an attorney for Nuiqsut Trilateral, said in a statement that the Interior Department told the group it “will not authorize activities prohibited by the Right-of-Way, absent Nuiqsut Trilateral’s waiver,” as long as the stay is in effect.
“The issuance of leases in the subject acreage is prohibited by the Right-of-Way, so we expect that leases will not be awarded in that acreage absent further action from NTI and appropriate discussions between NTI and Interior,” the statement said.
A bill seeking to increase civil legal aid for Alaskans who can’t afford attorneys has become law without Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s signature.
The measure, introduced by Juneau Democratic Rep. Sara Hannan, passed earlier this month with support from 27 out of 40 House members and 17 of 20 Senate members.
Under the new law, one-quarter of court system filing fees can be appropriated each year to an existing civil legal services fund, which subsidizes attorneys for low-income Alaskans who need legal representation in civil cases.
In effect, that will direct roughly $400,000 in additional state funding next year toward those legal services, potentially allowing hundreds of additional indigent Alaskans to receive free assistance on matters that include domestic violence protective orders, applications for government benefits, and child support.
The civil legal services fund was created in 2007 and updated in 2018, when lawmakers agreed to appropriate up to 10% of annual court fees toward the fund. Since then, the need for legal aid has outpaced the state’s spending, according to Hannan and other supporters of the measure.
A similar bill passed the Senate but stalled in the House near the end of the 2024 session.
Recent annual appropriations to the fund, which depend on court filing fees and other figures, ranged from $280,000 to $360,000. The new law will more than double the allowable annual appropriation from court filing feeds the fund, to a total of $766,000, according to the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.
The funding goes toward the Alaska Legal Services Corp., the only organization in the state dedicated to assisting low-income Alaskans with civil matters. The nonprofit corporation reported this year turning away half the Alaskans who asked for its help due to a lack of resources.
It reported handling 5,455 cases involving nearly 15,000 Alaskans in 2025, up from 2,880 cases involving just over 6,000 Alaskans in 2016.
The Alaska Legal Services Corp. has an annual budget of roughly $10 million, only a fraction of which comes from the state. Other funding sources include the federal government, tribes and private donations. In addition to its allocation from the civil legal services fund, the corporation has received an annual $400,000 state grant since 2022, down from $450,000 in preceding years.
The corporation’s director, Maggie Humm, estimated that for every additional $100,000 in funding, it can help 182 additional Alaskans.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Williwaw Social, a downtown Anchorage entertainment venue that hosted concerts, parties and community events for nearly 10 years, announced on Facebook that it will close its doors on Friday.
In a post from the venue’s official account, Williwaw Social thanked Anchorage residents, artists, staff and guests for supporting the business over the past decade. The announcement described the venue as a gathering place for live music, celebrations, rooftop events and nightlife in downtown Anchorage.
The post did not state a reason for the closure.
Showdown Alaska, which has partnered with Williwaw Social for events, posted a separate statement saying the closure came as a surprise to its team. The organization clarified that Showdown Alaska and Williwaw Social are separate entities that operate independently.
Showdown Alaska said its Sundown Summer Concert Series will continue as scheduled on F Street. In the caption of its post, the organization said Drake Night and Showdown Throwdown will be rescheduled at new venues, and ticket holders will receive more information by email.
Williwaw Social’s announcement thanked Anchorage for its support and described the closure as the end of a chapter for the venue.
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Avalanche forecasters say spring’s slow-moving arrival in Southcentral Alaska has led to potentially dangerous conditions for hikers heading into the mountains for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
The Friends of Chugach Avalanche Center posted an alert Thursday warning of a large slide blocking the road to the Crow Pass trailhead in Girdwood. Many popular trails within the Chugach National Forest, such as Byron Glacier and Crow Pass, continue to pose an avalanche hazard risk “as we can’t quite shake this cold, wet spring,” according to the alert from the nonprofit group affiliated with the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Center.
Avalanche forecasters last week warned hikers to be aware of numerous large avalanches releasing as spring conditions slowly arrived. Trails will continue to be dangerous as long as there’s snow covering higher terrain, they said.
“One of the biggest hazards during spring is not just traveling on steep slopes, but traveling below them,“ the avalanche center wrote in an alert last month. ”Many popular summer trails pass directly beneath avalanche paths. As temperatures warm, the snowpack weakens and avalanches can release naturally, running all the way to valley bottoms and across trails that appear dry and safe.“
The avalanches can carry heavy, wet snow “capable of burying a person, even far from where the slide started,” the alert said.
The forecast for the Anchorage area calls for continued cool, mostly cloudy and occasionally rainy weather with the potential for sun on Monday.
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