Arctic Coastal Plain / Danielle Brigida, USFWS

The Department of Interior announced Wednesday there were no bids received for oil and gas leases in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a 1,563,500-acre section of the National Refuge. The lease sale was mandated by Congress. The deadline to receive bids was Monday. 

This means there are no active leases on the Coastal Plain at this time. 

The Coastal Plain is home to the Porcupine caribou herd, some 200,000-plus animals strong, and is a sacred area to the indigenous Gwich’in people. Polar bears, Arctic foxes, and migratory birds also call the pristine area home. 

This marks two times in four years oil companies expressed little interest in developing an extraction program in the area. This was the second lease sale mandated by Congress as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The first sale yielded a surprisingly low $14.4 million in bids on 11 tracts. Two of the purchased leases were held by oil companies that ultimately canceled their bids and were refunded. The other leases were held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and were canceled by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

“The lack of interest from oil companies in development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge reflects what we and they have known all along – there are some places too special and sacred to put at risk with oil and gas drilling. This proposal was misguided in 2017, and it’s misguided now,” said Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis in a statement. “The BLM has followed the law and held two lease sales that have exposed the false promises made in the Tax Act. The oil and gas industry is sitting on millions of acres of undeveloped leases elsewhere; we’d suggest that’s a prudent place to start, rather than engage further in speculative leasing in one of the most spectacular places in the world.”  

Earthjustice sued the Trump Administration to try to block the lease sales in 2020. 

“The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is cherished internationally for its ecological value and held to be a sacred place by neighboring Gwich’in communities – this is  no place to drill for oil,” said Erik Grafe, an attorney at Earthjustice who lives in Anchorage. “It’s unsurprising, then, that no major oil companies showed up to bid.  They seem to understand that drilling in this remote landscape is  too risky, too complicated, and just plain wrong. The incoming Trump administration still hasn’t gotten the memo and has vowed to keep trying to sell the Refuge for oil. We’ll continue to use the power of the law to defend this cherished place, as we have for decades.” 

The state of Alaska, for its part, sued the Biden Administration to block the lease sales this week, but not because the state wants to prevent fossil fuel extraction. Rather, attorneys for the state argued the Biden Administration has placed too many rules and restrictions on any lease sales, making the leases unfeasible and unprofitable and, therefore, unattractive to any potential leaseholders. A victorious lawsuit may mean the incoming Trump Administration can restructure lease terms making them more attractive for drilling, according to Alaska Public Media.