The Biden administration has approved plans for a sale of Alaskan oil and gas leases. The action leaves the door open for drilling in a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Conservationists oppose the sale. But some leaders welcome the expansion of oil production in Alaska.
In 2017, President Donald Trump passed a law. It called for lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain. The area is roughly 1.5 million acres. It accounts for a small part of the refuge. The coastal plain is home to many of God’s amazing Arctic species, including polar bears, caribou, and musk ox. Debate over drilling in the coastal plain has gone on for decades.
The 2017 law requires two lease sales before the end of 2024. The first sale took place near the end of President Trump’s 2017-2021 term. But the incoming Biden administration canceled seven of those leases. It said environmental reviews done for the leases were flawed.
The deadline for the second sale is swiftly approaching. President Joe Biden’s recent proposal offers the minimum acreage mandated by the law—400,000 acres. The Bureau of Land Management says the offered land avoids areas important for polar bear denning and caribou calving.
Alaska’s senators call the current proposal a mockery of the law. They welcome President-elect Donald Trump’s pledges to expand oil production. They hope he will undo restrictions on vast swaths of Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope. More drilling in the refuge could add jobs and revenue for the state.
The Bureau of Land Management has said the coastal plain could contain 4.25 billion to 11.8 billion barrels of oil. Still, there’s limited information about the actual amount and quality of oil there.
Once leases are issued for the refuge, any survey or development plans must still undergo environmental review.
An Alaska-based environmental group says oil and gas development in the refuge will destroy an important ecosystem. “The Arctic Refuge deserves to remain a place of refuge, not an industrial oilfield lining the pockets of big oil executives,” says Kristen Miller of Alaska Wilderness League.
Indigenous Gwich’in leaders consider the coastal plain “sacred.” Their belief system involves a type of animism. But practically speaking, the Gwich’in rely on caribou, which calve there.
Meanwhile, leaders of an Iñupiaq community in the refuge support drilling. Nagruk Harcharek is president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat. He says the limits of the sale go against Iñupiat wishes. He describes the new lease sale as “a deliberate attempt by the [government] to kneecap [cripple] the potential of development” in the refuge.
The planned sale of oil and gas leases will be held January 9. That’s less than two weeks before President Biden leaves office.
