06/06/2026
Today, June 5, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) held a lease sale on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska.
The auction, which is mandated under the Republicans’ so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” allowed oil and gas companies to bid on leases for drilling in one of our last remaining, large and intact ecosystems.
It was a complete flop.
The BLM offered 58 individual tracts across about 688,829 acres for bid in the sale. Only two companies ended up submitting bids—on only five tracts that cover 72,049 acres in total.
So, in other words, roughly 90% of the entire bid area was left untouched.
For a federal government that has been shouting about “energy dominance” and “drill, baby, drill” for almost a year and a half now, it’s hard to look at this lease sale and not think “damn, that’s embarrassing.”
The two companies that did submit bids and ultimately secured a handful of leases were the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) and HEX Energy LLC. (AIDEA is a public corporation owned by the state of Alaska, which used Alaskan taxpayer money to buy three of the five leases.)
Similar to previous lease sales on the coastal plain, not a single major oil and gas company showed any interest. Not ConocoPhillips. Not ExxonMobil. Not HillCorp. Not Chevron.
Still, though, any oil and gas lease in this highly sensitive landscape is a lease too many.
"Today’s lease sale is yet another reminder that oil and gas development in the Refuge is high-risk, low reward with zero interest from real industry players," said Autumn Hanna, Vice President of Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Americans will not see relief at the pump and, instead, face greater risks from the drilling in a sensitive region."
Read the full story in my latest article: https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/blms-oil-and-gas-lease-sale-in-the
