There is some cause for celebration among those who oppose oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) as a recent lease sale in the areas of key caribou habitat received no bids.
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Jan. 6 was the deadline for bids for the second sale mandated by the 2017 Tax Act, U.S. legislation that offered the drilling rights. There are presently no active leases in ANWR after the final seven held by the Alaska Industry Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) were cancelled by the Secretary of Interior over legal deficiencies, a Jan. 8 Department of Interior statement notes.
Among the groups pleased with the lack of bids is the Gwich’in Steering Committee.
“Today we celebrate the perseverance of our people in this fight to protect the Arctic Refuge. We also thank the allies who raised their voices to stand with us. We know that we are not alone: the majority of Americans support protecting the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge; twenty-nine global banks now have a policy to decline underwriting oil and gas projects in the Refuge; and fourteen international insurers have also made such commitments, and the United Nations has three times sounded alarms about the harm and human rights violations to the Gwich’in from proposed oil and gas development in the sacred Coastal Plain,” a Jan. 8 statement from the steering committee reads.
A statement from the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation speaks to the importance of the area as a calving ground that replenishes important caribou herds. In the Gwich'in language it is called Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit (The Sacred Place Where Life Begins).
“United with other northern Indigenous nations in Alaska and Canada, the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation will continue to stand against the destruction of Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit. The United States government must recognize our fundamental rights of culture, health, and subsistence. Proceeding with any oil and gas development in these sacred lands would be a violation of our human rights. Securing permanent protection is about our human rights, our way of life, and our very survival,” said VGFN chief Pauline Frost.
VGFN Elder Norma Kassi echoed Frost’s view on the sacred importance of the coastal plain that ANWR sits on.
“I acknowledge the strong message that the oil and gas industry has sent by not participating in this lease sale in Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit (The Sacred Place Where Life Begins). I ask that the industry continue to stand with us and with people around the world who stand with the Gwich’in Nation in seeking the permanent protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,” she said.
Some of the statements from the Gwich'in suggest the lack of bids reflect a recognition that development in ANWR is bad business. This is also how Canadian Parks and Wildlife Society (CPAWS) Yukon representative Laurence Fox sees it.
“Why else would they not pony up the dough for the so-called ‘right’ to bang around in an ecologically essential Arctic wilderness without the Gwich’in who have advocated for decades to safeguard this sacred place,” Fox wrote in an analysis of the situation sent to the News on Jan. 9.
Fox added that the sales ordered under the first Donald Trump administration had been expected to generate $2 billion in oil and gas revenue in 10 years, offsetting the tax cuts promised in the act that set them in motion.
“Calling this ‘zero bids, zero dollars’ outcome ‘a failure’ is an understatement bordering on farcical,” Fox wrote.
Fox contrasted it with the earlier sale of leases which was called a failure when it generated US $14.4 million from the sale of 11 purchased tracts.
“Now, an entire administration, four years’ worth of protracted legal battles, and millions of taxpayer dollars for not only one but two time-consuming and technically complex environmental impact studies later, to open doors to oil and gas leasing to be greeted with only the sad chirping of some disinterested crickets is further proof that it does not, cannot, and never has made logical, economic, environmental, or moral sense to drill in the Arctic refuge, and it never will,” Fox writes.
If the door is closed on drilling lease sales in ANWR, it may only be closed temporarily. It is currently the subject of a lawsuit launched by the State of Alaska against the Department of the Interior. The Associated Press reported that Alaska alleges the terms of the sale are too restrictive and is also seeking to have an environmental review tied to it thrown out. The wire services said in a Jan. 8 story that litigation tied to the earlier round of sales is also still pending.
Contact Jim Elliot at jim.elliot@yukon-news.com
