The Bureau of Land Management is auctioning off 10 million acres worth of leases Wednesday for oil and gas exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), 150 miles west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Republicans in Congress are fighting to open ANWR to oil and gas exploration through the GOP tax bill. The Trump administration is moving ahead with oil drilling in Alaska through the NPR-A, 23 million acres free from the federal restrictions that cover ANWR.
The 10-million-acre lease offering will be the largest single lease sale in the history of the area. The previous record was set in 2004 when 5.8 million acres was offered for leases, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reports. The latest lease sale in 2016 brought in $18.8 million for 1.4 million acres.