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The Bureau of Land Management is seeking nominations for which parts of ANWR's Coastal Plane should be offered up to fossil fuel companies for potential drilling.on Monday that it was seeking nominations for which parts of ANWR's Coastal Plane should be offered up to fossil fuel companies for potential drilling, fulfilling apeople who consider the plane sacred as well as conservationists, scientists, and many members of the American public who value US public lands for their beauty and wildlife.
“People have worked together for decades to defend the Arctic Refuge, because this unique landscape is too special to be sacrificed to the oil industry for profit,"in a statement. "Tripling down on oil development in the Arctic takes us in exactly the wrong direction in our existential fight to curbThe sales would continue US President Donald Trump's push to increase oil and gas production, including in Alaska, ramping up an agenda that has dominated both of his terms. The Senate's action in 2025 followed an October decision by the Department of the Interior to open the Coastal Plane to drilling, overriding Biden-era protections. The DOI, led by pro-fossil fuel Doug Burgum, also"The Trump administration spent 2025 waging an all-out assault on public lands in Alaska’s Arctic, while ignoring the voices of Indigenous communities that hold these lands sacred and jeopardizing the survival of Arctic wildlife," Grafe said. "We’ve already taken steps to challenge Interior’s overall leasing plan for the Arctic Refuge in court, and we’re prepared to continue the fight as this lease sale process grinds on.” The Trump administration's plan for the Arctic faces wide opposition—public comments on nominations for portions of the Western Arctic to lease featured tens of thousands of calls for protection rather than exploitation. However, opponents of the plan also noted it may not be as popular with the industry as Trump hopes. Lease sales in ANWR in 2021 and 2024 received little interest from oil and gas companies, with the latter not “The Trump administration is hung up on oil and gas leasing in the Arctic Refuge because they cannot admit that the original Trump leasing plan—established following the 2017 Tax Act—was a complete and utter failure,”The Alaska Wilderness League appealed to the industry itself, noting that the area has some of the highest production costs on the continent while being an increasingly difficult place to work due to“Serious companies don’t gamble their future on the most remote, expensive, and controversial oil on Earth from one of the most unparalleled ecosystems left on this planet,”league executive director Kristen Miller. “If companies are still looking to drill the Arctic Refuge in 2026, it’s a sign that they can’t read the writing on the wall: Smart money has already walked away.” But whatever the decision of the oil and gas industry, Indigenous communities and their allies are determined to fight for the land that is home to“We condemn these actions, and encourage officials in the Trump administration—and our representatives in the Alaska delegation—to acknowledge and accept what we as Gwich’in know, and what thepeople agree on: The Arctic Refuge is no place for drilling," Moreland continued. "It deserves to be protected and preserved for the wildlife that depend on it, and for all our futures.”lost yet another legal battle in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. This is the fifth and final offshore wind project that has successfully challenged the administration’s stop-work order. In December—three days before Christmas—Donald Trump’s Department of the Interior halted five offshore wind projects that were all more than 40 percent complete. Vineyard Wind off the coast of Massachusetts was nearly 95 percent finished and already delivering power to the grid. Trump’s orders halted fully-vetted, billion-dollar projects and sent thousands ofhome at a time when construction jobs were scarce and energy demand was nearing its peak. Since then, all five stop-work orders have been challenged in court, and in all five times, the courts have ruled in favor of the offshore wind projects. “The unilateral court victories are evidence of what we’ve known all along—Donald Trump has it out for offshore wind, but we aren’t giving up without a fight. Communities deserve a cleaner, cheaper, healthier future, and offshore wind will help us get there,” said, offshore wind will prevail. We will continue to call for responsible and equitable offshore wind from coast to coast, as we fight for an affordable and reliable clean energy future for all.” “We are glad to see Sunrise Wind’s 800 workers, made up largely of local New Yorkers, get back to work on this critical project,” added– this power is super needed and especially important during extreme cold snaps and winter storms like Storm Fern. Here in New York, South Fork has proven offshore wind works, now is the time to see Sunrise, and Empire Wind, come online too.”Lawsuit challenges two-year waiver from the EPA’s mercury and toxic air pollution limits that protect Great Lakes communities, and public health Minnesota state and national environmental groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the Trump administration’s decision to exempt the nation’s taconite iron ore processing facilities from newly strengthenedlimits on mercury and other hazardous air pollutant emissions. The groups say the waiver is yet another example of the Trump administration’s overreach that undermines the country’s clean air safeguards. The taconite industry contributes approximately half of the mercury emissions from all sources in Minnesota.is effectively sacrificing our waters, our wild rice, and our children’s health so companies can keep emitting mercury into the air,” said Ashlynn Kendzior of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. “That violates the law and it harms our communities, and we are going to court to stop it.” Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that accumulates in fish and poses particular risks to those who are pregnant, to fetuses, and to young. Many communities in northern Minnesota and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where taconite facilities are concentrated rely on fish as a traditional food source, making them especially vulnerable to mercury contamination. State and federal health agencies have issued fish consumption advisories across Minnesota waters due in part to airborne mercury deposition. “These exemptions put children, pregnant people, and communities at greater risk from mercury and other toxic air pollution so taconite facilities owned by well-resourced companies can keep delaying pollution controls,” says Shampa Panda-Bryant, senior attorney at. “Communities have fought for decades for protections that President Trump is unlawfully trying to undo with the stroke of his pen, and once again putting profit and pollution over people.”, D.C., seeks to overturn a July 17, 2025 presidential proclamation that granted a two-year exemption from the EPA’s 2024 Taconite Iron Ore Processing air toxics rule. During the exemption period, these facilities are allowed to continue operating without federal standards for mercury emissions for taconite processing facilities and avoid new requirements to curb emissions of mercury, hydrochloric acid, and hydrofluoric acid, pollutants linked to brain damage in children, heart and lung disease, and premature death. EPA’s 2024 taconite rule established, after years of advocacy by impacted communities, the first nationwide limits on mercury from taconite iron ore processing plants and tightened standards for acid gases like hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acid. The agency found that these standards would significantly reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants from taconite plants in theJudge Rules Against Kristi Noem Order Seeking to Block Lawmakers From Immigrant Detention Facilities "The Court’s decision today... against ICE’s unlawful effort to obstruct congressional oversight is a victory for the American people," said Rep. Joe Neguse. Doubling down on a ruling from late last year, a federal judge on Monday once again rejected an effort by the, US District Judge Jia Cobb granted a temporary restraining order sought by Democratic members of the House of Representatives to overturn the US Department of Homeland Security's policy of requiring lawmakers to give a week's notice before being granted access to US Cobb had already overturned this DHS policy in a December ruling, arguing that it "was likely contrary to the terms of a limitations rider attached to" the department's annual appropriated funds. However, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in January reimplemented the one-week notice policy and argued that it was now being implemented with separate funds provided to DHS through the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which did not contain the language used in the earlier limitations rider. Cobb rejected this argument and found that "at least some of these resources that either have been or will be used to promulgate and enforce the notice policy have already been funded and paid for with... restricted annual appropriations funds," including "contracts or agreements that predate" the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.to legal journalist Chris Geidner, the effect of Cobb's ruling will be that congressional oversight visits to ICE facilities will now be "allowed on request." Rep. Joe Neguse , the lead plaintiff in the case, hailed Cobb's ruling and vowed to keep putting pressure on the Trump administration to comply with the law. "The Court’s decision today to grant a temporary restraining order against ICE’s unlawful effort to obstruct congressional oversight is a victory for the American people," said Neguse. "We will keep fighting to ensure the'She's Lying': Journalist Exposes Secret Watch Lists That Trump Official Says Don't Exist 'Lying or Demented': Trump Mocked For Claiming He Was 'Not Involved' With Losing Candidate He Endorsed'Corruption on a Breathtaking Level': Report Details Massive Foreign Investment in Trump Crypto FirmA $1.2 Trillion ‘Rip Off’: Report Spotlights Massive Scale of Medicare Advantage Fraud'We Will Not Bow': No Kings 3 Rallies Scheduled for March 28 With Flagship Event in Minnesota
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