This bill cancels a recent decision by the Bureau of Land Management that reduced oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Here's what's happening: In 2024, the government decided to protect about 400,000 acres of the Coastal Plain area from oil and gas development, leaving roughly 1.2 million acres off-limits to drilling. This bill would undo that decision and go back to the old 2020 rule that opened up all 1.6 million acres for potential oil and gas leasing.

If this bill passes, oil companies would have access to more land for exploration and drilling in this sensitive Arctic wildlife area. The government would be required to lease at least 400,000 acres in areas most likely to have oil and gas reserves. Environmental groups generally oppose this because the Arctic Refuge is home to wildlife like polar bears and caribou, while energy companies and some politicians support it for domestic oil production. Essentially, this is Congress using a special process to overturn an environmental protection decision made by the Biden administration just weeks earlier.

Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Bureau of Land Management relating to "Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program Record of Decision".

Begich, Nicholas J.

<p>This joint resolution nullifies the rule submitted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), issued on December 9, 2024, and related to the record of decision (ROD) for the program that leases, develops, produces, and transports oil and gas in and from the Coastal Plain program area within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.</p><p>The 2024 ROD that is being nullified by this resolution&nbsp;replaced the 2020 ROD that made all of the approximately 1.6 million acres of the program area available for oil and gas leasing. The 2024 ROD adopted Alternative D2 in the 2024 Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, which made approximately&nbsp;1.2 million&nbsp;acres unavailable for leasing or exploration in order to protect and conserve resources and certain uses in these areas. However, the 2024 ROD requires the statutory minimum of 400,000 acres to be made available for oil and gas leasing in a specified lease sale, subject to certain stipulations and operating procedures. Under current&nbsp;law, those acres must be located in the areas with the highest potential for the discovery of hydrocarbons.</p>