JUNEAU, Alaska: The Trump administration has approved a sweeping plan to open part of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, reigniting one of the country's most divisive environmental battles.

The Interior Department finalized its decision this week to allow lease sales across the refuge's 1.5-million-acre coastal plain, a pristine expanse viewed by conservationists as an ecological treasure and by many Alaskans as untapped economic potential.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the plan in Washington, D.C., joined by Alaska Republican leaders, including Governor Mike Dunleavy and members of the state's congressional delegation. The move fulfills a key campaign pledge by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to reopen the refuge, decades after protections were first enacted.

The decision authorizes lease sales over the next decade under the tax and spending package Trump pushed through Congress this summer. It also restores oil and gas leases that had been canceled by the previous administration, following a court ruling in March that said the cancellations exceeded executive authority.

"This clears the path for responsible development and a stronger Alaska economy," Burgum said, while environmental and Indigenous leaders condemned the decision as a threat to fragile Arctic ecosystems and Native ways of life.

The refuge's coastal plain, home to polar bears, migratory birds, and the Porcupine caribou herd, is considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich'in people. They depend on the herd for food and cultural continuity and have long opposed drilling in the area.

Meda DeWitt of The Wilderness Society said the administration "is placing corporate interests above the lives, cultures and spiritual responsibilities of the people whose survival depends on the Porcupine caribou herd."

But leaders from the Iñupiaq village of Kaktovik, located within the refuge, support oil exploration as a path to jobs and self-sufficiency.

"It is encouraging to see decisionmakers in Washington advancing policies that respect our voice and support Kaktovik's long-term success," said Charles "CC" Lampe, president of Kaktovik Iñupiat Corp.

A second lease sale held late in President Joe Biden's term drew no bidders, which critics said reflected overly restrictive conditions.

The administration also unveiled a related land exchange deal to allow construction of a long-sought road connecting the remote community of King Cove to the all-weather airport at Cold Bay.

The 11-mile gravel road would pass through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, home to internationally recognized wetlands that shelter hundreds of thousands of migratory birds. King Cove residents have argued for decades that the road is essential for access to emergency medical care, while conservationists warn it will fragment critical habitat.

Burgum described the road agreement as a "life and safety" measure. Governor Dunleavy and Alaska's congressional delegation have also backed the project.

Environmental groups vowed immediate legal action. Cooper Freeman, Alaska director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said the deal would exchange roughly 500 acres of "ecologically irreplaceable wilderness lands" inside the refuge for about 1,739 acres of King Cove Corp. land outside it.

"Along with the Native villages of Hooper Bay and Paimiut, we absolutely plan to challenge this decision in court," Freeman said.

The Arctic refuge has been at the center of U.S. environmental politics for more than 40 years, symbolizing the broader clash between conservation and energy independence.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican and longtime advocate of both projects, said she has pushed for the King Cove road throughout her Senate career. She called the refuge a "literal bread basket" for migratory birds but insisted the route can be built with minimal disruption.

"Nobody's talking about a multi-lane paved road moving lots of big trucks back and forth," Murkowski said. "It is still an 11-mile, one-lane, gravel, noncommercial-use road."