The Trump administration is giving the Alaska oil industry exactly what it asked for. It is granting the industry’s request to update regulations that could allow drillers off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to harass and even kill polar bears and walruses.
The request came from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, which represents Chevron, ConocoPhillips Alaska and 15 other oil and gas companies. It covers five years, through 2031. Until now, the Arctic Refuge and its offshore waters were left out of these rules entirely. And when the Obama, first Trump and Biden administrations issued similar rules for drillers in the region, none of them allowed polar bears or walruses to be killed.
The agency says it doesn’t expect deaths. Yet its own notice admits some walruses may die if oil company airplane noise sends them into a stampede.
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Oil and the Arctic don’t mix.
Oil coats a polar bear’s fur and destroys its insulation, and bears that lick it off can be poisoned. Walruses and seals breathe it at the surface and in breathing holes. It mats the feathers of seabirds, kills plankton and fish, and starves everything up the food chain.
▶ Watch: Last October, the administration moved to open the Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain, critical habitat for polar bears, caribou and migratory birds, to drilling. This week’s rules are what comes next. (PBS NewsHour, October 2025)
“Drilling the Arctic Refuge won’t lower what you pay at the pump. The federal government’s own energy analysts put the savings at a few cents a gallon, and only a decade after drilling begins. In June, not one major oil company even bid on the refuge’s leases. This was never about gas prices. It’s about giving away the last wild places, and the polar bears with them.” — Melissa Smith, Executive Director, Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance
And it doesn’t stop there
In Congress, H.R. 6251, sponsored by Alaska Rep. Nick Begich, would rewrite the Marine Mammal Protection Act so trophy hunters can import polar bears they killed in Canada before the species was listed under the Endangered Species Act. It’s written for about 41 trophy hunters. The House Natural Resources Committee has already sent it to the House floor.
As Rep. Jared Huffman warned, “This bill puts a for sale sign on the Marine Mammal Protection Act.”
Wherever it happens, we oppose trophy hunting without exception. Wealthy hunters paying to kill the rarest animals on earth and ship their bodies home as décor is a neocolonial practice. It has no place in conservation.
Why this matters here. The Arctic is the planet’s thermostat. When it warms, the Great Lakes feel it: warmer water, less ice, shifting fish habitat, and hotter, drier summers for Wisconsin’s forests, farms and wildlife.
We don’t have to look to Alaska to see this playbook. Here in Wisconsin, Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline has been trespassing on the Bad River Band’s reservation since 2013, when the Band refused to renew its easements. This summer, a federal appeals court agreed the pipeline is trespassing, then lifted the June 2026 deadline to shut it down. Enbridge’s 41-mile reroute would still cross more than 180 waterways and over 100 acres of wetlands that feed Lake Superior. Different pipeline, same story: the oil company gets more time, and the water, the wildlife and the tribe carry the risk.
And every exception carved into the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act becomes the template for the next one. Oil today, trophy hunters tomorrow, and wolves are next in line.
Marvin Gaye sang “Mercy Mercy Me.” Joni Mitchell sang “Big Yellow Taxi.” Talking Heads sang “(Nothing But) Flowers.” They warned us for fifty years. Now it’s our turn.
What we’re doing about it
Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance is a 100% volunteer organization. We take no corporate or government money, so we answer only to wildlife and to you. Here’s what your gift keeps going:
➤ We go to court. In 2021 we took Wisconsin to court and stopped the fall wolf hunt before a single wolf was killed. Now we’re preparing to challenge the DNR’s denial of our petition to protect wolves under state law, the only durable barrier to a future hunt.
➤ We dig up the records. We obtained the Wildlife Services reports on the nine wolves killed in the Town of Flambeau and exposed that the agencies never consulted the tribes. The DNR apologized because of that work.
➤ We fight the rollbacks. We’re opposing the DNR’s rewrite of Wisconsin’s endangered species list, which expects more species removed than added. We rallied public comments against repealing the Roadless Rule in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. And we’ve been sounding the alarm on H.R. 6251 since May.
➤ We show up. We read every report, testify at every meeting, and hold the agencies to their own rules.
If the polar bear news made you sick, turn that into action. Give today, and your gift of $100 or more is matched.
P.S. Big Oil got its rules. Forty-one trophy hunters are getting a bill. Every gift of $100 or more is matched through October, but we need you today. DOUBLE MY GIFT
Protect wildlife everywhere
End Trophy Hunting
Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance is a 100% volunteer watchdog. We read the reports, we show up, and we hold the agencies to their own rules. We beat the 2021 hunt, and we’re not done. Help us keep fighting.
