US holds first oil lease sale for Alaska s Arctic refuge
Becky Bohrer
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FILE - In this undated file photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, caribou from the Porcupine caribou herd migrate onto the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. The U.S. government held its first-ever oil and gas lease sale Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 for Alaska s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an event critics labeled as a bust with major oil companies staying on the sidelines and a state corporation emerging as the main bidder. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP, File)
iPolitics By iPolitics. Published on Jan 7, 2021 1:01pm Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson will appear at committee today. (Matthew Usherwood/iPolitics)
The Lead
Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson released a statement yesterday outlining his concerns over the Trump administration’s sale of energy leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Wilkinson argued the sale would detrimentally impact the region’s Porcupine caribou herd and local Indigenous communities.
“Porcupine caribou and their calving grounds are invaluable to the culture and subsistence of the Gwich’in and Inuvialuit and are integral to biodiversity in the North,” the statement read.
According to the Canadian Press, the sale is also opposed by the Gwich’in First Nations in the Yukon. The Gwich’in people launched a lawsuit last year in an effort to block the sale. The case remains before the courts.
JUNEAU â The U.S. government held its first-ever oil and gas lease sale Wednesday for Alaska s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an event critics labeled as a bust with major oil companies staying on the sidelines and a state corporation emerging as the main bidder.
The sale, held as scheduled after a judge Tuesday rejected requests by Indigenous and conservation groups to halt the event, garnered bids on half the 22 tracts that were listed as available in the refuge s coastal plain. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which held the sale, said the bids were under review.
The rugged remote area off the Beaufort Sea is considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich in. Critics of the lease sale say the region is special, providing habitat for wildlife including caribou, polar bears, wolves and birds, and should be off limits to drilling.