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WaPo: Once eager to drill, oil companies exit leases in Arctic refuge
Once eager to drill, oil companies exit leases in Arctic refuge
By Steven Mufson and Joshua Partlow
Updated June 2, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. EDT | Published June 2, 2022 at 2:31 p.m. EDT
Peaks in the Brooks Range are reflected in Schrader Lake in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. (Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
Three major oil companies have given up opportunities to explore for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, after the industry and Republican politicians have spent decades working to gain access to the sensitive region. Regenerate Alaska, a division of an Australian firm and the only oil company to directly acquire a tract on the refuge’s nearly 1.6 million-acre coastal plain, canceled its lease last month, after Chevron and Hilcorp, two other major oil companies, had also jettisoned their claims. The exits make it far less likely that drilling will take place soon in a vast, unspoiled landscape that has achieved iconic status among environmentalists and has been fought over for half a century.
An Anchorage real estate investor and the state-owned Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority still hold leases there, but industry analysts say they lack the financial power and expertise to develop the remote area on their own. The Anchorage Daily News first reported the three firms’ decision to pull out of the refuge. While Republicans enacted legislation in 2017 mandating two major lease sales in the refuge by the end of 2024, a coalition of Indigenous rights and environmental groups has launched a campaign to pressure corporations against investing in any developments there. The 20 million-acre preserve hosts hundreds of thousands of migrating caribou and waterfowl each year and provides critical habitat for the Southern Beaufort Sea’s remaining polar bears.
“This is positive news for the climate and the human rights of Indigenous people whose survival depends on a healthy, thriving calving ground for the Porcupine Caribou Herd, and further proves that the oil industry recognizes drilling on sacred lands is bad business,” the Wilderness Society’s Alaska state director, Karlin Itchoak, said in a statement. Five major U.S. banks — Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo — and a growing list of insurance companies have stopped giving financing for the Arctic oil business.
“It seems all the oil companies with leases there have concluded that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is unwise after all,” said Erik Grafe, deputy managing attorney in Earthjustice’s Alaska regional office. Grafe, who for years has been involved in litigation to block oil and gas development in the refuge, said, “We are glad that these companies may finally have seen the light, concluding that investing in Arctic oil is a bad deal on a planet that urgently needs to shift away from fossil fuels.”
(snip)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/02/arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-drilling/
By Steven Mufson and Joshua Partlow
Updated June 2, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. EDT | Published June 2, 2022 at 2:31 p.m. EDT
Peaks in the Brooks Range are reflected in Schrader Lake in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. (Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
Three major oil companies have given up opportunities to explore for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, after the industry and Republican politicians have spent decades working to gain access to the sensitive region. Regenerate Alaska, a division of an Australian firm and the only oil company to directly acquire a tract on the refuge’s nearly 1.6 million-acre coastal plain, canceled its lease last month, after Chevron and Hilcorp, two other major oil companies, had also jettisoned their claims. The exits make it far less likely that drilling will take place soon in a vast, unspoiled landscape that has achieved iconic status among environmentalists and has been fought over for half a century.
An Anchorage real estate investor and the state-owned Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority still hold leases there, but industry analysts say they lack the financial power and expertise to develop the remote area on their own. The Anchorage Daily News first reported the three firms’ decision to pull out of the refuge. While Republicans enacted legislation in 2017 mandating two major lease sales in the refuge by the end of 2024, a coalition of Indigenous rights and environmental groups has launched a campaign to pressure corporations against investing in any developments there. The 20 million-acre preserve hosts hundreds of thousands of migrating caribou and waterfowl each year and provides critical habitat for the Southern Beaufort Sea’s remaining polar bears.
“This is positive news for the climate and the human rights of Indigenous people whose survival depends on a healthy, thriving calving ground for the Porcupine Caribou Herd, and further proves that the oil industry recognizes drilling on sacred lands is bad business,” the Wilderness Society’s Alaska state director, Karlin Itchoak, said in a statement. Five major U.S. banks — Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo — and a growing list of insurance companies have stopped giving financing for the Arctic oil business.
“It seems all the oil companies with leases there have concluded that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is unwise after all,” said Erik Grafe, deputy managing attorney in Earthjustice’s Alaska regional office. Grafe, who for years has been involved in litigation to block oil and gas development in the refuge, said, “We are glad that these companies may finally have seen the light, concluding that investing in Arctic oil is a bad deal on a planet that urgently needs to shift away from fossil fuels.”
(snip)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/02/arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-drilling/
I don't normally post in this Group but just saw this article this morning and it was just outside of LBN's 12 hour criteria, but I thought it was relevant enough to put somewhere!
IMHO, this goes to show that the GOP only sloganeered with "Drill baby drill" and used it as a deflection and distraction, with no actual expertise or desire to actually drill up there (let alone transport it effectively).
I am glad the indigenous peoples and environmentalists who worked so hard over the years to continue to push back on the nonsense finally netted a win for the locals and the environment.
And as a note, a big lease opportunity was just cancelled a couple weeks ago -
Politics
Biden administration cancels Alaska oil and gas lease sale
By Sara Cook, Weijia Jiang, Matthew Mosk
Updated on: May 18, 2022 / 2:44 PM / CBS News
The Biden administration has canceled one of the most high-profile oil and gas lease opportunities pending before the Interior Department. The decision, which halts the potential to drill for oil in over 1 million acres in the Cook Inlet in Alaska, comes at a challenging political moment, when gas prices are hitting painful new highs.
In a statement shared first with CBS News, the Department of the Interior cited a "lack of industry interest in leasing in the area" for the decision to "not move forward" with the Cook Inlet lease sale. The department also halted two leases under consideration for the Gulf of Mexico region because of "conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed lease sales."
The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has previously canceled lease sales in Cook Inlet three times — in 2007, 2008, and 2011 — also citing "lack of industry interest" at the time as the reason for scrapping the sales.
But Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, released a statement Friday rejecting the administration's contention that there was not much interest from the industry in the lease sale.
(snip)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-alaska-oil-gas-lease-sale-canceled/
Biden administration cancels Alaska oil and gas lease sale
By Sara Cook, Weijia Jiang, Matthew Mosk
Updated on: May 18, 2022 / 2:44 PM / CBS News
The Biden administration has canceled one of the most high-profile oil and gas lease opportunities pending before the Interior Department. The decision, which halts the potential to drill for oil in over 1 million acres in the Cook Inlet in Alaska, comes at a challenging political moment, when gas prices are hitting painful new highs.
In a statement shared first with CBS News, the Department of the Interior cited a "lack of industry interest in leasing in the area" for the decision to "not move forward" with the Cook Inlet lease sale. The department also halted two leases under consideration for the Gulf of Mexico region because of "conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed lease sales."
The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has previously canceled lease sales in Cook Inlet three times — in 2007, 2008, and 2011 — also citing "lack of industry interest" at the time as the reason for scrapping the sales.
But Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, released a statement Friday rejecting the administration's contention that there was not much interest from the industry in the lease sale.
(snip)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-alaska-oil-gas-lease-sale-canceled/
5 replies
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Jimmy Carter will be happy, too - protecting land was one of his priorities and greatest contributions:
The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) is a United States federal law signed by President Jimmy Carter on December 2, 1980.[ANILCA provided varying degrees of special protection to over 157,000,000 acres (64,000,000 ha) of land, including national parks, national wildlife refuges, national monuments, wild and scenic rivers, recreational areas, national forests, and conservation areas. It was, and remains to date, the single largest expansion of protected lands in history and more than doubled the size of the National Park System.
and it has been a struggle to keep it intact all those years! 
And I still remember his national addresses - wearing a sweater! It was about that time that my Dad also started wearing sweater vests under his jacket. He was manager of the utility in this part of the state. 
If only Carter had another term, he could have done so much more. I also remember Reagan disposing of Carter's solar panels. 
I've also thought how proud Carter would be that Georgia managed to elect two Democratic senators! Now the priority has to be electing Stacey Abrams - for the people and President Carter!