Alaska Drilling Plan Spurs New Legal Fight for Environmentalists

Environmental groups are gearing up for another legal fight involving Alaska—this time over a federal plan to open an Indiana-sized region of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to new oil and gas development.

Rich Habitat: The vast region of tundra on Alaska’s Arctic Coastal Plain west of the oft-litigated Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is home to Native communities dependent on wildlife for subsistence, and harbors rich habitat for caribou, snowy owls, cliff-nesting raptors, and polar bears. The Trump administration plans to open 82% of the reserve to fossil fuel development, a more aggressive plan than previously floated, and without new public ...