The U.S. government held its first-ever oil and
gas lease sale for Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge, an event critics labeled as a bust with
major oil companies staying on the sidelines and
a state corporation emerging as the main bidder.
The sale, held as scheduled after a judge
rejected requests by Indigenous and
conservation groups to halt the event, garnered
bids on half the 22 tracts that were listed as
available in the refuge’s coastal plain. The U.S.
Bureau of Land Management, which held the
sale, said the bids were under review.
The rugged remote area off the Beaufort Sea is
considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich’in.
Critics of the lease sale say the region is special,
providing habitat for wildlife including caribou,
polar bears, wolves and birds, and should be off
limits to drilling.