Alaska wildlife groups and indigenous leaders announced Monday that they will work to block the U.S. Department of the Interior’s recently announced oil and gas lease sale bid for part of the Arctc National Wildlife Refuge.
Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which gave shelter to oil and gas drilling, the Biden administration announced that the second of two lease sales will occur on January 9, 2025.
The first Trump administration conducted its first lease sales in 2021, but received little interest and sales revenue as banks and insurance companies became reluctant to background drilling projects in the area. This was less than 1% of expectations.
The Interior Department released the final record of the decision on Monday, saying 400,000 acres of wilderness on the Refuge’s 1.6 million acres of northwest coastal plains will be bid at the lowest price of $30 an acre, despite vocal opposition from Gwychites. announced that it would be done. Nation and Inupiat Alaska Native Peoples.
The land supports local communities as well as porcupine caribou herds and polar bears.
“Our way of life, our food security, and our spiritual well-being depend on the health of caribou and the health of this irreplaceable landscape,” Kristen Moreland, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, told Bloomberg News. There is a direct connection.” “None of the oil companies participated in the first lease sale, and we expect them to do the same for the second lease sale.”
The record of decision is a supplement requested after President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration completed an analysis with “fundamentally flawed and legal errors,” the Sierra Club announced Monday. This completes the Bureau of Land Management’s process to prepare a comprehensive environmental impact report.
Selling drilling rights just before Trump takes office could complicate Republican plans for a larger sale later, but Dan Litzman, the Sierra Club’s conservation campaign director, said the sale would not be possible. Regardless of who is in power at the time, “oil and gas development in the Arctic Refuge will destroy some of the last pristine landscapes on Alaska’s northern slope and the Gwich’in people on which they depend.” This poses a direct threat to caribou herds. Above.
“The 2017 tax law forced through Congress by Donald Trump and his allies in Big Oil CEOs opened the coastal plain to oil and gas leasing,” Litzman said. “It would be grossly irresponsible to have him oversee the leases on these pristine lands. In the meantime, President (Joe) Biden will listen to the Gwich’in people and protect these lands and waters. His legacy is the line.
Eric Graefe, an attorney with the environmental law firm Earthjustice, said the group is “committed to going to court as often as necessary to protect the Arctic Refuge from oil drilling, and we are committed to making the Arctic Refuge less reliant on ever-expanding oil.” We will work towards a sustainable future.” extraction. “
“Drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is full of risks and no rewards,” Greif said. “Oil drilling will destroy this beautiful land held sacred by the Gwich’in people and further destabilize the global climate, while providing no benefit to taxpayers or consumers.”
Wildlife groups called on Congress to repeal a 2017 tax law requirement for lease sales in the “iconic American landscape” of the Arctic Refuge.
“Turning coastal plains into oil fields will eliminate the pristine nature of the Arctic Refuge,” said Nicole Whittington-Evans, the group’s Alaska senior program director. “This poses a direct threat to the physical, cultural, and human future.” The spiritual beings of the Gwich’in people depend on them. ”
