Defenders Slams Lease Sale in Arctic Refuge

The Bureau of Land Management today opened nine bids on five tracts regarding an oil and gas lease sale on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is sacred lands to the Gwich’in people and breeding grounds for millions of migratory birds, polar bears and the Porcupine caribou herd, whose harvest the Gwich’in rely on for survival. Defenders of Wildlife and the American public called on corporations to keep development out of the Arctic Refuge; and that call was heard. No major oil company showed up to bid.  

However, the state-owned Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority did show up for the sale. They were one of two successful bidders, including Hex Energy LLC.  The winning bids totaled $3,741,528. Half of this amount goes to the State of Alaska, leaving $1,870,764 for the federal treasury - a small fraction of what was projected. 

“This administration is brutally sacrificing eons-old habitat for mother polar bears and cubs, calving grounds for caribou and nesting habitat for millions of migratory birds all in the name of  oil and gas gains that may never be realized,” said Nicole Whittington-Evans, Defenders of Wildlife’s senior director of Alaska and Northwest programs. “Major oil and gas companies have thrice now seen the writing on the wall. The Arctic Refuge is unspoiled, which would make preliminary extraction activities far more harmful, expensive and experimental. It does not make sense for anyone to convert this flourishing, wild landscape into an industrial wasteland.”  

To provide the public with voice during the closed sale period, Defenders collected more than 10,000 testimonies and signatures from all 50 states that were delivered to 11 corporations on June 3.