The Department of the Interior said it would hold an oil and gas auction for 400,000 acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) on Jan. 9, just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. [emphasis, links added]
On Monday, Interior released a record of the decision and a notice of the lease sale, allowing an auction to be held before the end of this year.
The department will auction 400,000 acres, the minimum requirement set by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, of the 1.6 million acres available.
In 2017, Congress directed the department to hold two regional sales before the end of 2024.
During Trump’s first term, the administration lease sale resulted in nine leases being issued, with only two oil companies placing bids. The Biden administration reviewed and suspended all nine sales in 2021.
The move could make it challenging for the incoming Trump administration to auction additional land in the region because setting up a new sale and undergoing environmental studies could take several years.
One of Trump’s campaign promises was to boost domestic oil production on public land by removing regulations.
Earthjustice attorney Erik Grafe spoke out against the auction, stating that “drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is all risk with no reward.”
“Oil drilling would destroy this beautiful land, held sacred by Gwich’in people, and would further destabilize the global climate, but it offers zero benefit to taxpayers or consumers,” he added.
“We’re committed to going to court as often as necessary to defend the Arctic Refuge from oil drilling and will work toward a more sustainable future that does not depend on ever-expanding oil extraction.”
For years, the Alaskan region has lured the interest of oil and gas groups.
The United States Geological Survey estimates the region contains 7.7 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil on federal lands.
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