Oil and Gas Drilling

After a three-year push by the Trump administration, almost no oil companies offered bids. Analysts point to controversy, low oil prices and an incoming administration that opposes drilling.

Oil and gas companies make enough pellets each year to fill a stadium several times over. The oil industry has long known it has a pellet pollution problem, but that's not what it told the public.

Officials hope to auction off leases before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. He has pledged to protect the pristine landscape that's home to polar bears and migrating caribou.

The pandemic is adding renewed urgency to a critical debate: Just how quickly can the planet reduce its dependence on oil?

Environmental groups plan to sue to protect the breeding ground for caribou and polar bears. But if a drilling lease is sold, it could make it harder for a future president to reverse the move.

Some Democratic presidential candidates want to ban fracking to help address climate change. That attracts young people, but may alienate swing voters in key oil and gas states like Pennsylvania.

The Interior secretary touted the revised rules as eliminating "unnecessary regulatory burdens while maintaining safety." But environmental groups said the move demonstrates oil industry influence.

President Trump issues two executive orders that could make it harder for states to block companies from building oil and gas pipeline projects.

Journalist Nathaniel Rich says the oil industry helped create a partisan debate around climate change in the 1980s by paying scientists to write op-eds questioning climate science.