Sen. Sullivan proposal would ask Alaskans to accept less to drill public lands despite years of limited industry interest
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska
Mason Cummings, TWS
Bill would allow the federal government to lower royalty rates for oil companies to encourage drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
ANCHORAGE, Alaska [Sept. 23, 2026] — After years of minimal industry interest in leasing of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Sen. Dan Sullivan in an 11th- hour push is proposing to sweeten the deal for oil and gas companies by letting them pay lower royalty rates to develop these public resources.
Sullivan introduced the “Alaska’s Right to Produce Act 2.0” late last week, days before Congress is scheduled to leave Washington until after the November election. Rather than moving the bill through the usual committee process, Sullivan is seeking expedited Senate consideration of legislation that would double down on an Arctic oil and gas program that has struggled to attract industry investment and remains unpopular among communities in Alaska and nationally. There are no co-sponsors of the bill, including his own delegation. Among other provisions, the bill would allow the government to offer companies more favorable royalty terms to encourage development—reducing the public’s financial return from publicly owned resources.
This comes after years of limited industry interest in drilling in the Arctic Refuge. The January 2025 Coastal Plain lease sale received no bids at all. A subsequent sale in June 2026 resulted in only five leases and approximately $3.7 million in receipts — a far cry from the $96 million that the most recent sale in the Refuge was predicted to generate.
“Sen. Sullivan is selling out Alaskans to benefit oil executives” said Matt Jackson, Alaska senior manager for The Wilderness Society. “He’s proposing that Alaskans take a worse deal to score political points with oil companies who don’t even want to drill in the Refuge by proposing a bill he knows will never pass. Alaskans deserve the freedom to decide their future, not have the terms rewritten until industry finally says yes. We should be conserving these extraordinary places for future generations, not giving them away at a discount.”
The bill also seeks to restrict future administrations from managing oil and gas leasing in the Arctic Refuge, limit circumstances in which leases could be canceled, and restrict legal review of certain federal oil and gas decisions, among other things.
Sullivan’s legislation comes as several major decisions about industrial development across Alaska’s Arctic are moving forward simultaneously. The public currently has an opportunity to weigh in on a proposal to streamline oil and gas permitting across the Western Arctic, while the proposed Arctic Mine — a project tied to the controversial Ambler Road — is also moving through the federal permitting process. Together with renewed efforts to expand drilling in the Arctic Refuge, these actions represent a broader push to accelerate industrial development across some of Alaska’s largest remaining intact landscapes, making public scrutiny and meaningful opportunities for Alaskans to weigh in especially important.
Contact: Chelsi Moy, cmoy@tws.org
