últimas notícias

In 2017, the Republican-controlled Congress included language in a tax bill establishing a leasing program as a way of generating revenue for the federal government. But an environmental review, required under federal law, was only completed last year.

Environmental groups and others immediately sued the Trump administration, saying the review was faulty. For one thing, they said, the analysis discounted the impact of climate change.

While the issue remained in the courts, the Trump administration went ahead with a lease sale in early January of this year.

There had been little interest in the leases, at least publicly, from major oil companies, given the high cost of producing oil in the Arctic, the growing desire to reduce fossil fuel use, and the reputational risks of drilling in such a pristine area. After lobbying from environmental organizations and Native groups, major banks had pledged not to finance any drilling efforts in the refuge.

The apparent lack of interest was borne out in the sale. Only two companies, neither of them major producers, made bids to acquire 10-year rights to explore and drill for oil on two tracts totaling about 75,000 acres.

A state-owned economic development corporation in Alaska, offering the minimum of $25 an acre, was the sole bidder on the other tracts, totaling about half a million acres. That raised legal issues, including whether the state had standing to purchase leases, that have not been resolved.

Kristen Miller, acting executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, one of the groups that had sued the Trump administration, said the leasing program and resulting sale were the result of a “flawed and legally deficient process.”