THE LINK: OCTOBER 2023 16 Move would leave no leases remaining in the Refuge U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has canceled seven oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, held by a state of Alaska agency. If upheld, the action would leave no leases remaining in the refuge. The legality of Haaland’s action outraged Alaska’ congressional delegation state officials and North Slope community leaders. It will be tested in court. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, the state development corporation that owns seven federal leases in ANWR canceled by Haaland, said it will sue. “Interior’s action leaves AIDEA only one choice, that we have to go to court to protect our rights in the ANWR leases,” said Randy Ruaro, Executive Director of the state authority. Haaland’s decision was announced Sept. 6. “With today’s action, no one will have rights to drill in one of the most sensitive landscapes on Earth,” she said in a news conference Wednesday. “Climate change is the crisis of our lifetime. And we cannot ignore the disproportionate impacts being felt in the Arctic.” The state will argue that the Interior Department doesn’t have the authority to flout a federal law passed by Congress. “In 2020, AIDEA made lawful bids and was legally awarded land leases in the 1002 area of ANWR, an area designated by Congress for responsible oil production,” Ruaro said. “This action was laid out in the (federal) Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law by the President in 2017.” Haaland also announced new restrictions on federal land in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, a 23-million-acre area of federal lands west of the North Slope’s major oil fields. Interior officials were careful to say, however, that the new order would not affect ConocoPhillips’ Willow project, now in advanced development planning. “The proposed rule would not impact valid existing rights,” Laura Daniel-Davis, principal deputy assistant Interior secretary for Land and Minerals Management, told reporters. While the announcement left work on Willow free to proceed the new restrictions will serve to limit continued exploration in the area, possibly foreclosing new Willow discoveries. Alaska’s U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola was not comforted by that. “I am deeply frustrated by the reversal of these leases in ANWR. This administration showed that it is capable of listening to Alaskans with the approval of the Willow Project, and it is some of those same Inupiat North Slope communities who are the ones that are most impacted by this decision,” to cancel the leases in ANWR. Inupiat residents of the North Slope are indirectly affected by the lease cancellation. AIDEA was hoping to get Interior’s permission to do preliminary exploration this winter on its seven leases and had that occurred Kaktovik Inupiat Corp. and Arctic Slope Regional Corp. might have been able to also explore adjacent lands they own, which have oil potential. Also, development of any oil discovered in ANWR’s coastal plain would result in new property tax revenue to the North Slope Borough and new revenue to the state through production taxes and the state oil and gas property tax. AIDEA’s possession of the only leases in the refuge came about through a lease sale authorized by the federal tax act. No major oil and gas company submitted bids in the sale. Two small independent companies that did submit bids, aside from AIDEA, subsequently withdrew when it became apparent that Interior would delay permits and take other actions to slow exploration. The lease sale was held in refuge’s coastal plain east of state-owned lands where discoveries have been made. When Congress created ANWR in 1980, it placed most of the refuge in a protected wilderness status, but held out 1.5 million acres of coastal plain because of its oil and gas potential. — Tim Bradner Haaland ignores law, cancels ANWR leases “In 2020, AIDEA made lawful bids and was legally awarded land leases in the 1002 area of ANWR, an area designated by Congress for responsible oil production. This action was laid out in the (federal) Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law by the President in 2017.” — Randy Ruaro, Executive Director, Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority
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