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No oil or gas company attempted to drill a conflict wildlife refuge in Alaska, the Department of the Interior announced Wednesday.
As required by a 2017 law, the Biden administration offered the private sector the ability to drill in areas of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
However, he said on Wednesday that no company had submitted a bid to do so. The deadline for submitting bids for the drill was Monday.
“The oil companies’ lack of interest in development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge reflects what we and they have known all along: There are some places too special and sacred to put at risk with oil and gas drilling,” Acting Deputy Secretary of the Interior Laura Daniel-Davis said in a written statement.
Whether or not to allow drilling on the refuge has been a source of partisan conflict for many years.
Republicans, that in general drilling support there, they have argued that it is an opportunity to access more oil.
Democrats, who have generally opposed it, have pointed to the unique wildlife that can be found there, including grizzly bears, polar bears, gray wolves, caribou and more than 200 species of birds. In addition, the area contains lands considered sacred by the Gwich’in people
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 required the Interior Department to provide at least two opportunities to drill into the shelter.
A previous auction of drilling rights, held under the Trump administration, received a small number of offers, most come from the Alaska Export and Industrial Development Authority.
The Biden administration later suspended drilling leases issued as a result of that 2021 auction, citing “multiple legal deficiencies.”
