Biden administration sets stage for minimal 2nd lease sale in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The Biden administration on Wednesday issued a final environmental review for a second lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The administration also identified a preferred alternative for the sale that would offer 400,000 acres in the refuge’s coastal plain — the minimum acreage required by Congress for the sale in the 2017 Tax Act.

“The preferred alternative in the plan is informed by science, public comments and cooperating agency input, best balances the five purposes of the Refuge, and presents a pathway that honors the Refuge’s original purposes while meeting the requirement under the Tax Act to offer a portion of the Refuge for oil and gas leasing,” the U.S. Interior Department said in a prepared statement.

The announcement was met by frustration on all sides — longtime opponents of drilling in the refuge want oil lease sales there halted, and supporters of ANWR oil drilling said the Biden administration was continuing to hamper resource development that Alaskans support.

It also came the day after Donald Trump won a second presidential term. Trump, who is aggressively pro-resource extraction, has said he will once again push for drilling in the refuge. Alaska Republicans who favor resource development are celebrating Trump’s victory, saying drilling in the refuge is much more likely to take place under his administration.

Interior said in its statement that the goal is limiting the footprint where seismic exploration could take place and avoiding sensitive polar bear dens and caribou herd calving areas.

The potential surface disturbance would be limited and would include “no surface occupancy” provisions to avoid ground disturbance in certain areas.

A date for the lease sale has not been set, but it must be held by Dec. 22.

The 2017 Tax Act, signed by Trump, required the federal government to hold two lease sales in the coastal plain of the refuge. After the final environmental review for the sale, the Biden administration will choose a leasing alternative, then offer oil and gas leases for sale to companies.

The first lease sale was held in 2021 under Trump. President Joe Biden’s administration canceled the small number of leases issued in that sale, saying it did not meet legal requirements.

Most of the leases were sold to an Alaska development agency that is suing the federal government over the cancellation. The agency, the Alaska Industrial and Export Development Authority, is preparing to buy more leases in the second sale.

The first lease sale offered about 1 million acres of land for lease. It saw no interest from major oil companies and was largely considered a flop.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Wednesday that she hasn’t yet read the report, but she’s aware of top-line details.

She said the proposed limitations appear to be so great that they restrict opportunities for bidding.

The Biden administration is offering the bare minimum acreage, then added further limits, such as restrictions on where seismic exploration can occur, she said.

“But what they’re doing is exactly what I feared they will do, which is put conditions on that will make it so difficult and so impractical,” she said. “They’ve all but kneecapped the whole thing.”

She said Trump will take a more “openly aggressive” approach to oil and gas development, and she hopes his win leads to more bidding in the refuge. But she acknowledged the remote, undeveloped region is a difficult place to drill.

“I think we’re going to have to remind those who would be looking to bid of the potential and the promise, and why Alaska makes sense,” she said.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said early Wednesday afternoon that his staff is still combing through details of the proposed lease sale. He and Murkowski inserted the leasing provision into the 2017 Tax Act, he said.

Sullivan said that Biden’s actions against drilling in the refuge, including canceling the original leases, inject uncertainty for companies that undermines interest in bidding.

”We’ll see what the terms are (of the lease sale),” he said.

”I’m expecting them to be very onerous and difficult” for companies to comply with, he said.

The draft environmental report received more than 100,000 public comments, Interior’s statement said.

The federal government’s preferred alternative would make land available in the northwest portion of the coastal plain available for leasing for potential exploration and development, including re-offering canceled lease acreage, the final environmental report says.

The area has the highest potential for the discovery of oil or gas, the report says.

The preferred alternative could lead to an estimated 995 acres of surface disturbance, including for an oil processing facility, well pads and roads. That level of surface disturbance is the smallest of four development alternatives, the report says.

The Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat and the village of Kaktovik, the only community inside the boundary of the refuge, said they oppose the proposed leasing plan released by the Biden administration Wednesday because it ignores them. (Officials with Interior and the Bureau of Land Management did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.)

The Voice group, representing elected Iñupiat leaders from the North Slope, supports oil and gas development in the refuge.

The group said in a prepared statement that its members support the advancement of a lease sale. But the action comes too soon after a large majority of voters from across the U.S. rejected the Biden administration’s policy agenda with the election. The Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat said it rejects “the federal government’s unilateral policy decisions in the region.”

“There is a majority consensus of elected leadership across the North Slope, including Kaktovik, that responsible resource development is essential to maintaining our economic security and way of life,” said Rex Rock Sr., president of the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. “We remain united against any attack on our self-determination.”

“The federal government’s latest actions are shameful and will have serious consequences for Kaktovik and the North Slope,” said Josiah Patkotak, North Slope Borough mayor. “With this latest development, DOI has soundly rejected the opportunity to partner in our effort to aptly balance development and preservation in our region. This administration has moved beyond ignoring our appeals to now seeking to remove us from the picture entirely.”

The Neets’ąįį Gwich’in tribal governments of Arctic Village and Venetie, who oppose development in the refuge, joined conservation groups on Wednesday in calling for a halt to the proposed lease sale.

The Alaska Native tribes said the leasing program proposed under Biden is an improvement over the Trump administration program.

But they renewed their call for permanent protection of the refuge to safeguard the Porcupine caribou herd that they hunt and consider a sacred part of their culture.

“We are steadfast in urging Congress to repeal the leasing program in the Arctic Refuge and put in place permanent protections for the Arctic Refuge, ensuring the Neets’ąįį Gwich’in people can continue to exist as they have since time immemorial,” said RaeAnn Garnett, first chief of the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government.

The tribes over the last year have pressed the Biden administration to establish an Indigenous sacred site in the coastal plain to protect the caribou.

Environmental groups also criticized the announcement.

“Oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge is obviously a catastrophe for wildlife and the climate, but these lease sales are also a scam that costs taxpayers,” said Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Lease sale interest in the Arctic Refuge has been preposterously propped up by the state as Alaska’s government tries to hide the fact that every oil and gas company in the world has walked away from drilling there.”