Earthjustice Statement on Lease Sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge  

Earthjustice issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Department of Interior’s announcement today that it received no bids for its lease sale auctioning off parcels of the Coastal Plain of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil-and-gas drilling.

“The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is cherished internationally for its ecological value and held to be a sacred place by neighboring Gwich’in communities — this is no place to drill for oil,” said Erik Grafe, an attorney at Earthjustice who lives in Anchorage. “It’s unsurprising, then, that no major oil companies showed up to bid. They seem to understand that drilling in this remote landscape is too risky, too complicated, and just plain wrong. The incoming Trump administration still hasn’t gotten the memo and has vowed to keep trying to sell the Refuge for oil. We’ll continue to use the power of the law to defend this cherished place, as we have for decades.”

The Alaska public lands area, which has never been developed for human use, is a haven for iconic wildlife, such as polar bears, Arctic foxes, and migratory birds. Indigenous Gwich’in people, who reside in villages throughout the region and rely on caribou for cultural and subsistence needs, consider the Coastal Plain to be sacred because it serves as the calving grounds of the Porcupine Caribou Herd.

The sale was mandated under a leasing program included in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, ostensibly to boost federal revenues. In August 2020, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s proposed leasing program. In September of 2023, the Biden administration cancelled oil-and-gas leases issued following a 2021 Coastal Plain lease sale, held shortly before President Trump left office.