The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Monday, Dec. 9, issued a Record of Decision (ROD) for the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement(SEIS), which analyzed the program as well as a lease sale mandated by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (Tax Act) for the nearly 1.6-million-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The BLM is also issuing the Notice of Sale for the oil and gas lease sale of 400,000 acres—the minimum required by the Tax Act—in the northwest portion of the Coastal Plain on Jan. 9, 2025.
The 2017 Tax Act required the BLM to offer two lease sales in the Coastal Plain within seven years of enactment. During the previous Administration, the first lease sale was held and resulted in nine leases being issued. In January 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 13990, directing the Interior Department to review the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program.
Then in June 2021, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland issued Secretary’s Order 3401, suspending all activities related to implementing the Leasing Program pending completion of a comprehensive analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Of the nine leases sold during the previous Administration’s sale, two were canceled and refunded at the lessees’ request, and the remaining seven were canceled by the Department.
The BLM will proceed with the preferred alternative from the recently published final SEIS, which it claims “best balances the five purposes of the Refuge by presenting a pathway to provide maximum protection for the conservation purposes of the Refuge while meeting the requirement under the Tax Act.”
The agencies consulted with Alaska Native Tribes and Corporations and engaged with a wide variety of other stakeholders to develop the analysis using the best available data and science.
The area offered for sale will avoid important polar bear denning and Porcupine Caribou Herd calving areas. Due to No Surface Occupancy stipulations, it also has the smallest footprint of potential surface disturbance and limits seismic exploration to the areas available for leasing.
Leasing is the first step in developing federal oil and gas resources. Any permits or authorizations for specific on-the-ground activities on lands obtained through the lease sale would require additional review through the NEPA process.
