Plans to expand oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic are raising alarm among conservationists, scientists, and wildlife advocates. The Bureau of Land Management announced a March 2026 oil and gas lease sale across roughly 5.5 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, and the agency has also announced a June 2026 lease sale in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
These decisions come at a time when polar bears are already struggling with rapid changes in the Arctic. NOAA reported that Arctic winter sea ice reached the lowest annual maximum extent in the 47-year satellite record in March 2025, while September 2025 brought the 10th-lowest minimum extent on record.
Polar bears depend on stable Arctic habitat.
Denning Habitat Is At Risk
Polar bears rely on coastal areas for denning, where mothers give birth and care for their cubs. Polar Bears International warns that the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is an important denning area for polar bear mothers and cubs in the threatened Southern Beaufort Sea population, and that seismic testing, road building, and drilling pose serious threats to these bears.
Noise, vehicle traffic, aircraft, drilling activity, and other industrial disturbance can disrupt natural behavior at the most vulnerable time in a polar bear’s life cycle. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has acknowledged that oil and gas exploration, development, production, and transportation activities in the Beaufort Sea and North Slope region may result in incidental take of polar bears and Pacific walruses over a five-year period.
Denning mothers need quiet, undisturbed areas.
Federal Decisions Will Shape The Future
The Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management have authority over leasing, permitting, and environmental review for oil and gas activity on federal lands. In April 2026, BLM announced that it would hold an oil and gas lease sale in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on June 5, 2026.
Conservation groups have already challenged Arctic drilling approvals. The Associated Press reported that conservation groups and an Iñupiat-aligned organization sued to challenge approval of an exploratory drilling program in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, arguing that federal analysis failed to adequately consider risks to wildlife and sensitive habitat.
Earthjustice has also warned that offering vast tracts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling threatens polar bear denning habitat, the Porcupine caribou herd, and one of the largest intact landscapes in the country.
Polar bears are already fighting for survival in a rapidly changing environment. Expanding drilling into their habitat adds another layer of risk that could further threaten cub survival, denning security, and the fragile Arctic ecosystem they depend on.
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