The Trump administration on Monday finalized a plan to begin selling leases for companies to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a long off-limits area that environmentalists consider to be one of the wildest places left on Earth.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s “record of decision” authorizing the oil and gas program delivers on a mandate from the 2017 Republican tax cut bill that included a provision allowing energy exploration in a 1.56 million-acre section of the refuge, known as the “1002 area,” where billions of barrels of oil are believed to lie beneath the coastal plain.
The decision determines where and under what terms and conditions leasing will occur in the coastal plain within the 19.3 million-acre ANWR, which Bernhardt said contains the largest untapped onshore reserves of oil and gas in North America.
Bernhardt said the first lease could occur by the end of the year, a faster timeline than Congress required, which could make it difficult for a future administration to overturn. Democratic nominee Joe Biden has said he is “totally opposed” to drilling in the Arctic.
Actual drilling wouldn’t happen in the refuge for eight years at the minimum, Bernhardt said, even with a lease sale this year.
The Interior Department still must issue a “call for nominations” and take public comment before scheduling a sale.
“I am not really driven by the political dynamics,” Bernhardt said in a call with reporters. “I wanted to make sure I deliberated comfortably. I feel comfortable we certainly can move forward quite promptly after this decision is rendered.”
It’s uncertain how interested energy companies would be in the opportunity, with low oil prices from the pandemic sapping demand for fuels and competition steep from oil and gas in the nation’s lower 48 shale regions. Investors concerned about exposure to climate change financial risks have also turned against funding Arctic drilling.
Two dozen major banks around the world, including five of the six largest U.S. banks, have all prohibited financing for Arctic drilling.
“Our climate is in crisis, oil prices have cratered, and major banks are pulling out of Arctic financing right and left,” said Adam Kolton, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League. “And yet the Trump administration continues its race to liquidate our nation’s last great wilderness, putting at risk the indigenous peoples and iconic wildlife that depend on it.
The 19.6-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was created under President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1960. In 1980, Congress provided additional protections to the refuge but set aside the 1002 area for future drilling if lawmakers approved it.
Democrats have managed to block those efforts over fears that drilling would harm the ecosystem of what they call one of the wildest places left on Earth, with polar bears, caribou, and arctic foxes.
That streak ended in 2017, when Republicans led by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the chairman of the Energy Committee, pushed for ANWR drilling to be included in the tax cut bill.
“President Trump’s leadership brought more than three decades of inaction to an end,” Bernhardt said.
The legislation projects that drilling in the refuge could raise $1 billion over 10 years, which could be especially a big deal in Alaska, whose government provides residents an annual check from oil revenue.
“This is a capstone moment in our decades-long push to allow for the responsible development of a small part of Alaska’s 1002 Area,” Murkowski said on Monday. “New opportunity in the 1002 Area is needed both now, as Alaskans navigate incredibly challenging times, and well into the future as we seek a lasting economic foundation for our state.”
But Trump himself Monday wavered on his enthusiasm for drilling in the refuge. The president has tried to play up his conservation credentials ahead of the election, recently signing legislation that protects public lands.
“We’re looking at different things, we may or may not do it,” Trump said on Fox and Friends. “I am very pro-energy. At the same time, in theory, I should go down as a great environmental president.”
Bernhardt said he did not see Trump’s comments and could not clarify what he meant.
