OIL RIGHTS IN ARCTIC REFUGE UP FOR SALE
The Trump administration said it would begin the process of selling leases in Alaska to oil companies.
The coastal plain is thought to overlie geological formations that could hold billions of barrels of oil, although that assessment is based on data collected in the 1980s.
Only one exploratory well has ever been drilled in the refuge, and a New York Times investigation found that the results were disappointing.
Should sales proceed, it is unclear how much interest drilling in the refuge will attract from oil companies.
It would be at least a decade before oil would be produced from there, and by then the drive to wean the world from fossil fuels may have lessened the need for it.
Arctic oil production is also difficult and costly; companies may decide it’s not worth the effort financially.
They also may fear the potential effect to their reputations by drilling in such a pristine place.
In August, the Interior Department announced that it accepted a final environmental review of the lease- sale plan and would begin preparing to auction off acreage. At the time, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said he believed that sales could occur before the end of the year.
Environmentalists and other opponents — including a group representing an Alaska Native tribe, the Gwich’in, who live near the refuge — filed suit, claiming that the Interior Department did not adequately take into account the effects of oil and gas development on climate change and on wildlife.
Those groups also criticized the decision to put forward the call for nominations.
“This lease sale is one more box the Trump administration is trying to check off for its oil industry allies before vacating the White House in January,” said Adam Kolton, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, in a statement.
“It is disappointing that this administration until the very end has maintained such low regard for American’s public lands, or the wildlife and Indigenous communities that depend on them.”
Separately, the Bureau of Land Management has revived a plan for a seismic survey in the coastal plain to better assess the petroleum reserves there. The survey has been proposed by an Alaska Native village corporation, Kaktovik Inupiat Corp., using a contractor, SAExploration, that had been part of a similar proposal in 2018 that went nowhere.
If the bureau gives final approval to the plan, heavy survey trucks could be rolling across part of the coastal plain by the end of this year.
Environmental groups have objected to the plan for a survey, which they say will permanently harm the delicate tundra and could disturb, injure or kill denning polar bears.
However, even if the survey proceeds, it will not be finished until well after the sales take place.