Biden administration sets stage for 2nd oil, gas auction in Alaska refuge

The Biden administration took a key step toward holding a required sale of oil and gas leases in an Alaska wildlife refuge with the publication of a final environmental review, the Interior Department said on Wednesday. 

The analysis outlined a preferred scenario under which the agency would offer 400,000 acres (162,000 hectares) to drillers, the minimum allowed under a 2017 tax law that mandated oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - including one by the end of 2024. 

U.S. President Joe Biden's Interior Department set the analysis in motion in 2021, a few months after the administration of former President Donald Trump sold oil and gas leases in the refuge in the waning days of his administration. 

 

The agency in 2023 then canceled the leases issued at the Trump sale, citing a flawed environmental analysis. 

Biden had pledged to protect the 19.6 million-acre (7.9 million hectare) refuge for species including polar bears and caribou.

The new environmental document was published the day after Trump defeated Biden's vice president, Kamala Harris, in the presidential election. 

Arctic Defense Campaign, a coalition of environmental and native Alaskan groups, said drilling in the pristine refuge would harm wildlife and local communities. 

"Today's action by the Biden administration better protects the Arctic Refuge, and for that, we are grateful," Kristen Miller, executive director of Alaska Wilderness League. "The election results have made the threat to America's Arctic clear.

The fight to save the Arctic Refuge is back, and we are ready for the next four years." 

Alaska's elected officials have sought to open up drilling in the reserve to secure jobs and revenues for the state. Represenatives for the state's governor, Mike Dunleavy, and U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, were not immediately available for comment. 

The Interior Department will issue a decision no sooner than 30 days after the environmental review's publication. A lease sale would be planned following that decision.