Arctic Refuge lease sale attracts limited interest

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — By staying away from today’s Arctic Refuge oil and gas lease sale, major oil companies appeared to recognize what the administration hasn’t: the Arctic Refuge is far more valuable as a thriving wildlife habitat and cultural homeland than as an industrial oil field.  

While only one small Alaska-based gas company and an Alaska economic development corporation entered bids for 72,049 acres out of 690,000 acres, once again no major companies showed interest in leasing tracts on the Porcupine Caribou Herd’s sacred calving grounds.

Friday's sale was the latest move in the administration’s effort to sell off our public lands for industrial development. Congress in 2025 expanded the leasing program rather than discontinuing a program that has continuously fallen flat – jeopardizing one of America’s wildest, treasured landscapes. 

The Wilderness Society responded to today’s lease sale by issuing the following statement from Alaska Senior Manager Matt Jackson:  

“The two previous lease sales were complete flops, and today’s results showing interest only from one small, speculative outfit and from the state’s export authority, once again highlights the absurdity of an oil and gas leasing program on the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge.  

“These mandated lease sales, which no serious company even wants, are nothing more than a political prop for this administration. Even a small amount of exploratory development could have large negative impacts on the Porcupine Caribou Herd and everyone who relies on it for their way of life. Every lease sale, regardless of its results, endangers the freedom of local communities to sustain their cultures and traditions for generations to come.” 

At 19.3 million acres, the Arctic Refuge is America’s largest wildlife refuge and provides habitat for caribou, polar bear, anadromous fish like Dolly Varden, and migrating birds from across the globe, and a diverse range of wilderness lands. H.R. 3067 and S. 1519, the bicameral Arctic Refuge Protection Act, has more than 130 co-sponsors in the House and Senate and would permanently protect the 1.6-million-acre Refuge coastal plain and remove its leasing program.