JUNEAU, Alaska -- The administration's drive to increase oil and gas activity across Alaska encounters another challenge Friday as the newest lease auction opens for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain.

Critics of exploration there highlight weak industry participation in earlier auctions and shifting conditions from climate trends as reasons to keep the area closed. Backers instead regard the Delaware-sized zone as an undeveloped asset capable of raising national output while creating revenue and employment opportunities.

This spring a coalition of environmental organizations wrote to executives at eleven energy firms, including Alaska operators ConocoPhillips and Hilcorp, asking them to skip the auction. The message referenced continuing court cases from the prior presidential term and cautioned about possible financial, operational and reputational exposure.

Signed by groups such as The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club and Earthjustice, the correspondence described the refuge as a premier element of federal public lands and noted broad backing for its preservation, which would render any activity especially prominent.

ConocoPhillips Alaska spokesperson Megan Olson indicated the firm does not comment on upcoming lease plans. A representative for Hilcorp offered no reply to an inquiry.

The administration has focused heavily on Alaska resources, with last year's tax and spending legislation directing auctions across three state regions. Besides the refuge plain, offerings occurred in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and Cook Inlet, an older basin that long supplied gas to the state's largest population center.

The March Cook Inlet round drew zero bids. In contrast, the first National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska sale since 2019 attracted hundreds of offers from major companies even while litigation continues. Officials have acted to expand access in the reserve and ease prior restrictions, the same area hosting ConocoPhillips Alaska's Willow project.

Alaska's expansive North Slope holds the established Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk fields between the petroleum reserve and the wildlife refuge.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority presently controls leases inside the refuge without active operations. Geological estimates suggest the plain may hold between 4.25 billion and 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil, though details on volume and grade remain sparse.

Bordering the Beaufort Sea in northeast Alaska, the coastal plain consists of tundra and low hills that support species such as musk oxen and migratory birds. The Gwich'in regard the area as sacred because the caribou herd central to their subsistence calve there, and village leaders have pledged continued opposition to drilling.

Other Alaska Native communities have welcomed development as vital to local economies.

Nagruk Harcharek, president and CEO of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, noted a longstanding practice of balancing resource use with traditional activities like subsistence hunting. He described responsible development as central to self-determination, especially for Kaktovik residents inside the refuge who favor exploration.

Kaktovik residents continue to hunt and fish on the plain and will help shape any future project to safeguard resources and community needs, he added.