JUNIAU, Alaska — The U.S. Department of the Interior said Wednesday that no bids had been submitted for this week oil and gas lease sales in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — a sale the state has challenged as too restrictive and in violation of a 2017 law aimed at opening the refuge’s comprehensive coastal plan to exploration and development.
Monday was the deadline for companies to submit bids, the agency said.
Acting Assistant Secretary of the Interior Laura Daniel-Davis said oil companies’ lack of interest in pursuing leases in the refuge’s coastal plain “reflects what we and they have always known — there are some places that are too special and sacred to be endangered by oil. gas drilling.”
“The oil and gas industry sits elsewhere on millions of acres of undeveloped leases; we would suggest that this is a sensible place to start, rather than continuing with speculative leasing in one of the most spectacular places in the world,” she said in a statement.
But it is unlikely that this will be the last word. The state this week sued the Interior Department and federal officials over the sale, in part because the terms were too restrictive. The state also wants the environmental review underlying the sale dismissed. Litigation around the first rental sale – held in the waning days of the Trump administration in early 2021 – is also still pending.
A 2017 law, which President-elect Donald Trump has often referenced, called for two lease sales in the refuge’s coastal plain to be offered by the end of 2024. Major oil companies held off the first sale, with a state-owned company as the leading bidder. One of President Joe Biden’s first acts as president was order a review of the leasing program, which ultimately led to the cancellation of seven remaining leases. Smaller companies had previously given up two other leases they retained from that sale.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which falls under the Interior Department, said it has offered 400,000 acres for lease as part of the smaller, second sale, the minimum acreage required by the 2017 law. The agency said the proposal avoids key polar bear and caribou calving areas and has the smallest footprint of potential surface disturbance.
Leaders in Gwich’in communities near the refuge consider the coastal plain sacred, citing its importance to the caribou herd they rely on, and oppose drilling there. Leaders of the Iñupiaq community of Kaktovik, located in the refuge, support drilling and view responsible oil development as crucial to the economic well-being of communities in the region.
Drilling advocates — including state political leaders — are hopeful that Trump will continue drilling in the refuge, as he sees a potential to create jobs, generate additional revenue and boost U.S. oil production. But while the Bureau of Land Management has said the coastal plain could hold 4.25 billion to 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil, there is limited information about the quantity and quality of oil there. And environmentalists argue that the oil companies’ lack of interest so far should speak volumes.
“They seem to understand that drilling in this remote landscape is too risky, too complicated and just plain wrong,” Erik Grafe, an attorney with Earthjustice, said in a statement. “The new Trump administration still hasn’t gotten the memo and has vowed to keep trying to sell the oil haven. We will continue to use the power of the law to defend this cherished place, as we have done for decades.”