Alaska legislators decry ANWR actions
oil and gas discoveries because finds have been made on state-owned lands to the west including the large Prud- hoe Bay field. A large gas and condensate discov- ery was also found at Point Thomson, also on state lands, but a short dis- tance west of the border of the feder- ally-owned ANWR. However, the toxic politics over ANWR leasing and exploration over several decades — conservation groups at the state and federal level have fiercely opposed drilling — dis - couraged major companies in ex- ploring the refuge. BP and Chevron showed interest in the 1980s and drilled an exploration well on lands adjacent to the refuge owned by Alas- ka Native corporations but the results of that well remain confidential to this day. “The federal government has behaved more like an adversary than an ally when it comes to responsible development in Alaska,” said Congressman Nick Begich III, R-Alaska. “Making a lease sale so un- economic 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-deter- mination of Alaska’s resources than has been available as of late.” 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 can- cel 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 develop- ment, 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.”
pending litigation by the Alaska In - dustrial Development and Export Au- thority (AIDEA), the state of Alaska’s development finance agency. AIDEA had bid and won leases in the first lease sale in 2021. However, the Interior Department, under Haa - land’s watch, canceled those leases. AIDEA’s lawsuit claims Haaland acted illegally in cancelling the leases, which are in the same area that would have been offered for lease Jan. 10. A litigation cloud complicating new leasing would further discourage bid- ding. Although ANWR is being touted by Trump and others as having huge oil potential, industry has actually shown little interest in recent years. There were just a handful of bids in the 2021 lease, most of them from AIDEA, the state agency. Most geologists believe the Coast- al Plain does have potential for new “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 circum- vent the federal law Congress passed and President Trump signed mandating two lease sales in ANWR. Closing off nearly 75 percent of the 1002 Area, in- cluding lands that are projected to have live on the Coastal Plain and systemati- cally dismantled the reasonable program established by the Trump administration under the law we wrote in 2017,” said U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. “It’s also quite rich for Biden administration of- ficials 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 de- veloping ANWR and have said as much,” said U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
the Interior Department will likely set terms that are more industry-friendly for Alaska’s oil and gas industries. However, there could be questions on how much can be done in the four years Trump will have in office. A new Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement will be required and there will surely be lawsuits filed by con - servation groups. The 400,000 acres offered in Jan - uary was the minimum acreage re- quired to be offered under the Tax Act. In the previous 2021 lease sale, much of the 1.5 million acres in the Coast- al Plain, the part of ANWR considered most prospective, were offered for bidding. The lease stipulations in the recent offering would have restricted seismic work and surface disturbance in ways that would make drilling and devel- opment problematic. An additional twist is that there is U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Congressman Nick Begich III (all R-Alaska) , slammed the Department of the Interior (DOI) for holding a lease sale in the non-wilder- ness Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in a manner that predictably resulted in no bids. The lease sale, announced in De- cember after DOI arbitrarily rewrote the Coastal Plain oil and gas program to make development impossible, was clearly designed to fail. Interior dramat- ically restricted the lands available for leasing and imposed sweeping restric- tions 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. Comments from Alaska Legislators on ANWR: “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
— Tim Bradner
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