{"id":92723,"date":"2025-01-09T18:43:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T23:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=92723"},"modified":"2025-01-09T18:43:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T23:43:19","slug":"alaska-beacon-republicans-still-pushing-to-drill-in-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/01\/09\/alaska-beacon-republicans-still-pushing-to-drill-in-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska Beacon: Republicans still pushing to drill in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Arctic<\/a>
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Oil and gas lease sale in Alaska\u2019s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge draws no bids<\/div>\r\n
Gwich\u2019in and environmental opponents celebrate the results, while state officials expect the incoming Trump administration to make it easier to drill in the refuge<\/div>\r\n
Thursday, January 9, 2025<\/div>\r\n
By Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon<\/a> <\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

No bids were received in the second congressionally managed oil and gas lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Department of the Interior announced on Wednesday.<\/p>

Had any been received, bids were scheduled to be opened<\/a> on Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. That Interior agency was charged with managing the refuge leasing program created through a 2017 tax bill passed by a Republican-controlled Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in his first term.<\/p>

The absence of bids this time, after very few bids were received in the first lease sale held four years ago, backs up Biden administration officials\u2019 beliefs that drilling in the refuge is bad policy, said a statement released by the Interior Department.<\/p>

\u201cThe lack of interest from oil companies in development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge reflects what we and they have known all along \u2013 there are some places too special and sacred to put at risk with oil and gas drilling. This proposal was misguided in 2017, and it\u2019s misguided now,\u201d Acting Interior Secretary Laura Daniel-David said in the statement. \u201cThe BLM has followed the law and held two lease sales that have exposed the false promises made in the Tax Act. The oil and gas industry is sitting on millions of acres of undeveloped leases elsewhere; we\u2019d suggest that\u2019s a prudent place to start, rather than engage further in speculative leasing in one of the most spectacular places in the world.\u201d<\/p>

This week\u2019s lease sale follows one held on Jan. 6, 2021, that drew little bidding, and none from large oil companies. Most bids in that sale were from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, an Alaska state development agency. AIDEA\u2019s head disclosed Wednesday that the agency and the Biden administration have reached an agreement to ensure that the leases acquired in that first sale will not be resold to other parties.<\/p>

Supporters of oil development in the refuge blamed the Biden administration for the lack of bids this time, saying it put too many restrictions on oil development in the refuge, sometimes referred to as ANWR.<\/p>

\u201cThis is no surprise. From Day 1, Joe Biden and (Interior Secretary) Deb Haaland have sought to illegally shut down any chance of developing ANWR and have said as much. They and their eco-colonialist allies have made every effort to delay, and ultimately kill, any chance of successful ANWR lease sales and have canceled the voices of the I\u00f1upiat Native people of Alaska in the process,\u201d U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said in a statement.<\/p>

Sullivan\u2019s statement referred to the pro-drilling stance of many of the North Slope\u2019s I\u00f1upiat people. He said the second lease sale was structured \u201cto circumvent the federal law Congress passed and President Trump signed\u201d by closing off nearly three-quarters of the coastal plain to new leasing.<\/p>

\u00a0\u201cThe good news is we will soon be working with the Trump administration which, unlike Biden-Harris, has a proven track record of responsible Alaska resource development, faithfully implementing the laws passed by Congress, and respecting the voices of the I\u00f1upiat people of the North Slope who strongly support the ANWR leasing program. January 20th can\u2019t come soon enough,\u201d Sullivan added.<\/p>

Trump, who won another term in office, has argued for oil drilling in the refuge. He has claimed<\/a>, falsely, that it could hold more oil than is in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>

\tThe incoming Trump administration has multiple avenues to pursue oil development in the refuge, though future attempts might be met with more litigation. Republican-led efforts to open the coastal plain<\/a> to drilling in past decades were blocked, either by Congress or by a veto issued by then-President Bill Clinton. Along with Clinton, past Democratic presidents have consistently opposed opening the refuge to oil development.<\/p>

Clashing Gwich\u2019in, I\u00f1upiat views<\/div>\t

The debate over oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has divided Alaska Natives.<\/p>

North Slope I\u00f1upiat organizations argue that refuge development offers important economic opportunities, including the possibility of drilling on Native-owned land within the refuge boundaries. I\u00f1upiat organizations have opposed Biden administration Arctic policies, and in the 2024 presidential election, voters on the mostly I\u00f1upiat North Slope favored Trump<\/a> over Vice President Kamala Harris by about 10 percentage points, a contrast to past patterns of Alaska Indigenous support for Democratic presidential candidates.<\/p>

In a statement, Nagruk Harcharek, president of the advocacy organization Voice of the Arctic I\u00f1upiat, called the Department of Interior statements Wednesday \u201cdeeply insulting\u201d to the people of the North Slope. Voice of the \u00a0Voice of the Arctic I\u00f1upiat has supported North Slope oil development and opposed Biden administration policies.<\/p>

In his statement, Harcharek reiterated that criticism of the Biden administration.<\/p>

\u201cThis last-gasp salvo by a departing administration is no way to create durable policy affecting Indigenous lands, and we urge the Trump-Vance administration to take a different, more inclusive approach when it assumes office in less than two weeks from today, hopefully resulting in more durable policy for the North Slope, the State of Alaska and the nation,\u201d Harcharek said in his statement.<\/p>

However, some of the staunchest opposition to oil development comes from the Gwich\u2019in Athabascan people of northeastern Alaska and neighboring parts of Canada. The Gwich\u2019in have long been high-profile opponents of Arctic refuge oil development, citing their dependence on and cultural ties to the Porcupine Caribou Herd that uses the refuge\u2019s coastal plain for giving birth to calves.<\/p>

\u201cA second failed lease sale in the Arctic Refuge also clearly demonstrates that even oil companies recognize what we have known all along: drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not worth the economic risk and liability that results from development on sacred lands without the consent of Indigenous Peoples,\u201d said a statement issued by the Gwich\u2019in Steering Committee, a coalition of Gwich\u2019in tribal members in Alaska and nearby areas of Canada.<\/p>

\u201cToday marks a significant success in protecting the Arctic Refuge,\u201d Curtis Gilbert, first chief of the Arctic Village Council, a Gwich\u2019in Tribal government. \u201cThe total failure of the second lease sale demonstrates the overwhelming public opposition to oil and gas drilling in the Refuge. We continue to maintain our unrelenting opposition to any development on these sacred lands\u2013 grounds that are not only central to our cultural and spiritual identity, but fundamental to the subsistence way of life that has sustained our people for countless generations.\u201d<\/p>

Environmentalists who have fought against refuge drilling for decades joined the Gwich\u2019in in celebrating the lack of bids in the lease sale.<\/p>

\t\u201cThe oil industry\u2019s glaring lack of interest in this sale \u2013 combined with the undeniable realities of climate change and massive public opposition to drilling in the Arctic Refuge \u2013 should make it obvious to everyone that there is no legitimate reason for the federal government to have a leasing program for the sacred land of the coastal plain,\u201d Meda DeWitt, Alaska senior manager for The Wilderness Society, said in a statement. DeWitt is Alaska Native, though neither Gwich\u2019in nor Inupiat.<\/p>

\u201cThis charade of lease sales in the Arctic Refuge would be comical if drilling weren\u2019t so dangerous to one of our planet\u2019s most spectacular ecosystems,\u201d Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. \u201cWhile Trump raves about turning the Arctic Refuge into Saudi Arabia, even the most unscrupulous oil companies and banks have stayed clear of the refuge\u2019s precious coastal plain. It\u2019s time to put the Arctic Refuge oil fantasy to bed and stop fleecing American taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>

In contrast, the state government of Alaska and most Alaska politicians have long supported drilling in the refuge. The first refuge lease sale was held on Jan. 6, 2021, with AIDEA as the main bidder.<\/p>

AIDEA wound up with seven leases in the refuge coastal plain, but those were later canceled by the Interior Department. The department, which had been sued by Gwich\u2019in and environmental groups for holding the first lease sale, concluded that environmental studies conducted by the previous Trump administration were inadequate. As a result, the department eventually canceled the leases. It conducted a new environmental study that resulted in a set of new environmental protections<\/a> attached to this second lease sale.<\/p>

The only two other leases sold in 2021, to a small oil company and to an Anchorage real estate investor, were voluntarily relinquished by those bidders.<\/p>

AIDEA continues planning for development<\/div>\t

The state and AIDEA, its development organization, are engaged in legal battles against the Biden administration over what they say are unfair and illegal restrictions on oil development.<\/p>

AIDEA has filed multiple lawsuits against the Biden administration over its policies in the refuge, with actions in 2021<\/a>, 2023<\/a> and 2024<\/a>. The 2021 complaint was dismissed<\/a> in 2023 by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason.<\/p>

AIDEA\u2019s board in November approved spending up to $750,000<\/a> to continue to press its legal claims concerning Arctic refuge oil drilling and another controversial development, the Ambler Access Project, which would put a road over 200 miles through the Brooks Range foothills to an isolated mining district.<\/p>

Randy Ruaro, AIDEA\u2019s executive director, said the organization had two reasons for declining to bid this time.<\/p>

One is that Interior\u2019s new terms make bidding unattractive, not just to AIDEA but to other entities, he said.<\/p>

\t\u201cThe lack of bidding is no surprise to us, because the terms and conditions imposed by the Department of Interior are so onerous and so strict that we don\u2019t believe development can occur,\u201d he said.<\/p>

Another reason for declining to bid is the newly struck agreement with the Biden administration that ensures that AIDEA\u2019s seven refuge leases will not be sold off, Ruaro said.<\/p>

\u201cAIDEA will be protected. Its lease rights will be protected from being sold again to someone else,\u201d he said.<\/p>

That agreement was reached just in the past few days, Ruaro said.<\/p>

Whatever legal limbo may exist for the leases, AIDEA believes they remain valid and valuable, he said.<\/p>

\u201cWe think there\u2019s billions of barrels of recoverable oil on our leases and in the 1002 area,\u201d he said, referring to a legal name for the refuge\u2019s coastal plain. \u201cThey\u2019re economically worth recovering, can be economically developed. And so we\u2019re hopeful that the Trump administration will correct the errors and mistakes of the Biden administration and follow the statute and hold a sale that has terms and conditions that allow for the development of ANWR.\u201d<\/p>

The state of Alaska has also sued to overturn Biden Arctic refuge policies. A complaint<\/a> filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage seeks to overturn the environmental stipulations applied to the second lease sale, which the state contends make oil development there economically impossible.<\/p>

Gov. Mike Dunleavy, in a statement<\/a> about the lawsuit released on Tuesday, blasted what he said was the Biden administration\u2019s \u201ccontinued and irrational opposition\u201d to Arctic oil development \u2013 and, like Ruaro, said he looked forward to a reversal under a new Trump administration.<\/p>

\u201cWe have already heard comments from the incoming president that his administration will thankfully take a different tack and open up those areas that are meant to be developed. But unfortunately, we can\u2019t wait for that\u2014we have to challenge this unlawful action now,\u201d Dunleavy, a longtime Trump supporter, said in the statement.<\/p>

The state in July filed a different lawsuit<\/a> against the Biden administration that sought billions of dollars in compensation for alleged losses incurred after refuge leases were canceled.<\/p>

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