The Biden administration today announced that it has canceled all oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, bringing an end to a set of leases that were troubled from the start.
Citing climate change concerns, Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said the cancellation was justified. The announcement also includes strengthened environmental protections for some 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, though it specifically allows activity with the Willow project to continue.
“With climate change warming the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet, we must do everything within our control to meet the highest standards of care to protect this fragile ecosystem,” said Secretary Haaland in a prepared statement. “The steps we are taking today further that commitment, based on the best available science and in recognition of the Indigenous Knowledge of the original stewards of this area, to safeguard our public lands for future generations.”
Alaska’s congressional delegation hailed the sale of leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the final days of the Trump administration as the culmination of a decades-long fight to drill for oil on Alaska’s Coastal Plain. However, even then, there were signs that the sale wouldn’t materialize into the windfall many had hoped it would be.
Drawing only $14.4 million in bids from two companies and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the state’s investment company, the sale was seen widely as a massive flop. Since then, there’s been little indication that companies are serious about drilling in the refuge, and the two private companies have since given up on their leases, leaving the state as the lone entity standing.
The leases were suspended in June 2021 through a secretary’s order based on what it argued were “multiple legal deficiencies in the underlying record supporting the leases” in the lease sale cobbled together in the waning days of the Trump administration.
A 2019 report by Politico painted a haphazard process inside the Trump administration as they rushed to prepare the lease sale with the hopes that getting the leases issued would essentially establish a solid legal right to drill in the refuge. That included political forces altering, omitting or downplaying analysis done by scientists, frequently without the knowledge or input of those scientists. In addition to making the environmental analysis faulty, Politico went on to explain that such a messy process isn’t exactly comforting to an industry that typically favors stability in its investments.
A rushed and incomplete review poses a hazard not just to the environment, but to the companies that want to develop it: The less thorough the review, the less they can protect themselves against future legal risk associated with their drilling operations. More sophisticated and experienced companies have even been known to ask federal agencies to spend more time on an impact statement if they have concerns that the agency might be overlooking something of consequence. Asked about the draft environmental impact statement for leasing in the coastal plain, an Interior official with experience working in Alaska said, “Unless there are some significant changes made, our feeling is it’s going to be very susceptible to litigation.”
The state has already pledged legal action against the feds, with Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy releasing a statement that said, “We will fight for Alaska’s right to develop its own resources and will be turning to the courts to correct the Biden Administration’s wrong.”
Environmental groups praised the decision as a significant boon for the climate and indigenous communities that rely on the Porcupine Caribou herd and other natural resources.
The Interior Department said it will soon release a draft environmental impact statement on oil drilling in the Arctic refuge, which will go out for public comment. Under the 2017 law that authorized the 2021 sale, the feds must hold a second lease sale by Dec. 22, 2024.
Still, the morass of a legal fight combined with investment banks’ cooling interest in supporting Arctic drilling doesn’t exactly make it an appealing investment.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
