For Immediate Release, January 6, 2021
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Arctic Refuge Oil Lease Sale Compromises Vital Alaska Wilderness
Outgoing Administration Takes Next Step in Rushed Process to Open One of Nation’s Most Iconic, Sacred Landscapes to Oil Drilling
WASHINGTON The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority emerged as the apparent high bidder in the Trump administration s illegal oil and gas lease sale as part of its Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Today s bids disregard the facts: Oil and gas drilling on the Arctic Refuge coastal plain would threaten Indigenous rights, industrialize one of America’s last wild places, threaten imperiled wildlife and exacerbate climate change. $1.8 billion total was promised in the Tax Act; today’s failure of a lease sale generated only $14.4 million, or less than 1% of what was promised.