U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan, and Congressman Nick Begich III (all R-Alaska) on Wednesday, Jan. 8, slammed the Department of the Interior (DOI) for holding a lease sale in the non-wilderness Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in a manner that they say “predictably resulted in no bids.”
The lease sale was announced in December.
In a press release, the congressional delegation writes that the “DOI arbitrarily rewrote the Coastal Plain oil and gas program to make development impossible,” claiming the lease was “clearly designed to fail.”
The release adds that the “Interior dramatically restricted the lands available for leasing and imposed sweeping restrictions on the minimal lands left available, despite the clear and unambiguous language the Alaska delegation included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.”
“I derive no satisfaction in saying I told you so, but the ‘lack of interest’ in this lease sale was an intended consequence of this administration’s efforts to make any development in the Coastal Plain economically unfeasible. This mess is the culmination of a failed energy policy that prioritizes resources from countries like Iran, Venezuela, and Mozambique over states like Alaska. Over the past four years, the Biden administration has ignored the Alaska Native people who live on the Coastal Plain and systematically dismantled the reasonable program established by the Trump administration under the law we wrote in 2017,” said Senator Murkowski. “It’s also quite rich for Biden administration officials to suggest that companies should develop elsewhere. Where, exactly, in Alaska or in any federal area, is that even possible under the policies they have imposed? Thankfully, moving forward, we have plenty of options to ensure that our state can produce more of its resources, including from the Coastal Plain, rather than being punished and sanctioned for having them. Better days are ahead.”
“This is no surprise. From Day 1, Joe Biden and Deb Haaland have sought to illegally shut down any chance of developing ANWR and have said as much,” said Senator Sullivan. “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 Iñupiat Native people of Alaska in the process. This latest lease sale was yet another attempt to circumvent the federal law that Congress passed and President Trump signed mandating two lease sales in ANWR. Closing off nearly 75 percent of the 1002 Area, including lands that are projected to have substantial resources beneath them, is clearly an attempt to stymie interest from industry. Don’t forget: Companies had already witnessed the Biden-Harris administration brazenly and illegally cancel leases from the first sale. The 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 Iñupiat people of the North Slope who strongly support the ANWR leasing program. January 20th can’t come soon enough.”
“The federal government has behaved more like an adversary than an ally when it comes to responsible development in Alaska,” said Congressman Begich. “Making a lease sale so uneconomic in its construction that no party is willing to place a bid is not evidence of a lack of interest, but rather it is evidence of a keen understanding that these lands under the current regime have not been offered in good faith. Alaskan lands should be in Alaskans’ hands, and I look forward to working with the Trump Administration and my colleagues in the delegation to ensure greater self-determination of Alaska’s resources than has been available as of late.”
In 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which established an oil and gas program for the Coastal Plain of ANWR (also known as the “1002 Area”) and required at least two area-wide lease sales by Dec. 2024. The 1002 Area is estimated to contain a mean of 7.7 billion barrels of oil that could help refill the three-quarters empty Trans Alaska Pipeline System.
Congress authorized the development of up to 2,000 surface acres within the 1002 Area – just 0.01 percent of ANWR – to bring those barrels to market.
“Instead of upholding the law and implementing it as Congress directed, the Biden administration imposed an unlawful pause for the Coastal Plain program, illegally rescinded valid leases issued in early 2021, and deliberately injected uncertainty into the future of leasing and development efforts at every turn,” the delegation’s press release states.
At the same time that it was crafting this lease sale, the Biden administration also relaxed sanctions and other production and export restrictions on nations such as Iran and Venezuela, allowing them to increase their production levels and generate tens of billions of dollars in new revenues for what the delegation calls “illicit and corrupt purposes that have degraded global security.”