New Arctic categorical exclusion allows massive oil and gas exploration projects to bypass environmental reviews

Paired with a separate rule to accelerate oil and gas development, this action will reduce environmental scrutiny and public input from start to finish across Alaska's Western Arctic

ANCHORAGE, AK — The Bureau of Land Management is allowing all future winter seismic and exploration drilling in Alaska's 23-million-acre Western Arctic—also known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska—to proceed without any further environmental review or public process. 

The Western Arctic is the largest tract of public land in America. This categorical exclusion comes as the agency is simultaneously advancing a separate rule to fast-track approvals for oil and gas production facilities, which together effectively eliminates environmental review and public input from start to finish for all future oil and gas activity in the Western Arctic. 

Winter exploration involves massive industrial operations across sensitive Arctic landscapes. Seismic exploration disturbs caribou and other wildlife, disrupts access to critical winter habitat and damages fragile tundra vegetation, with impacts changing depending on where and how operations occur.

“The administration is handing oil companies a free ride to drill and develop the Western Arctic while blocking Americans from having a say in the process or even effectively knowing about destructive oil and gas activities on our public land,” said Matt Jackson, Alaska senior manager for The Wilderness Society. “The Western Arctic is not a uniform landscape, and these are not small, routine activities. Where companies operate, how much ground they cover and what conditions exist on the tundra all matter. That's precisely why environmental review and public engagement are important. We have a responsibility to conserve these extraordinary public lands and ensure future generations inherit the same freedom to experience them that we enjoy today.”

In 2025, BLM reviewed a ConocoPhillips exploration program spanning approximately 467 square miles, including seismic exploration across 192,000 acres, four exploratory wells, dozens of miles of temporary ice roads and requiring more than 90 million gallons of freshwater for the broader program. The environmental assessment examined potential impacts to caribou, fish habitat, permafrost, waterways and subsistence resources, along with risks from heavy equipment and fuel spills.

Under this categorical exclusion, future exploration programs will proceed without any project-specific environmental analysis or public review.

A categorical exclusion is meant to allow federal agencies to approve activities without conducting environmental reviews because those activities are not expected to have significant impacts — things such as routine road maintenance or replacing signage. But 90,000 lb. seismic thumper trucks rolling across the Western Arctic's vast and varied tundra, wetlands and wildlife habitat comprise a scale and level of impacts completely unsuited for a categorical exclusion.

This action comes alongside a separate BLM rule that would fast-track permitting for oil and gas production and associated infrastructure. Together, they will effectively eliminate project-specific environmental review at all stages of oil development across the 23-million-acre Western Arctic.

For media inquiries, contact Keri Gilliland at kgilliland@tws.org.