Alaska Wilderness League

Arctic Refuge Drilling Fails Again — Why Congress Must Repeal the Leasing Mandate 

On Friday, June 5, the Trump administration held its third oil and gas lease sale on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. For the third time, the results told the same story: no major oil company bid and the financial promise used to justify drilling in one of America’s last great wild places remained unfounded. 

Caribou on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge (Photo credit: Pam Miller)

Nine bids came in and just two entities placed them (AIDEA and Hex Energy). Total revenue was only $3,741,528 — less than 0.4% of the nearly $1 billion Congress claimed Arctic Refuge drilling would generate to offset the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. 

After three tries, across three lease sales, the cumulative return still hasn’t even reached 1% of what was promised. Arctic Refuge oil

What We Did to Get Here 

This moment didn’t happen in a vacuum. It is the result of years of sustained, coordinated advocacy — from Gwich’in Nation leaders, from conservationists, from faith communities, from everyday people across the country.

In the lead-up to Friday’s sale, our coalition mobilized on every front: 

More than 335,000 public comments were submitted from 22 different groups, directed at the administration, Congress, and the corporations that were being asked to participate in this sale.

126 national organizations signed on to a letter opposing the lease sale. So did 12 conservation and sportsmen’s organization CEOs, members of Congress, and faith and business leaders through the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.

The Gwich’in Steering Committee wrote directly to oil and gas CEOs requesting a meeting to hear directly from people whose homeland, whose food sovereignty, and whose cultural survival are at stake.

Community hearings in Portland, Seattle, Fairbanks, and Houston gave voice to the thousands of people who understand that the Arctic Refuge coastal plain — what the Gwich’in call the Sacred Place Where Life Begins — is not a line item in a budget reconciliation bill. It is a living landscape. It is the calving ground of the Porcupine Caribou Herd. It belongs to all of us, and most urgently, to the people who have called it home for thousands of years.

Community Hearing event in Portland, OR

Op-eds ran in the Anchorage Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Columbian. The film The Arctic: Our Last Great Wilderness screened in Leavenworth, Washington, days before the sale. Members of Congress — including Sens. Markey and Merkley and Reps. Huffman and Vasquez — spoke out publicly and forcefully in statements. Others like Rep. Vasquez and Sen. Heinrich showed up powerfully on social media. 

Why The Results Matter 

The financial argument for drilling in the Arctic Refuge has now failed three consecutive times. The world’s largest banks — Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo — walked away from financing Arctic Refuge drilling years ago. Major insurers declined to underwrite it. Oil companies with the technical and financial capacity to operate in one of the world’s most demanding environments looked at the cost structures, the accelerating permafrost instability, and the long-term demand outlook and passed. 

The only two bidders who showed up were a state development authority and a little-known company placing a handful of bids. 

As AWL Executive Director Kristen Miller put it in our statement: 

Economic gain was a false justification to permanently sell off the most ecologically and culturally significant landscapes in the United States. The American people don’t want this, the oil industry doesn’t want this, and our public lands deserve so much better.

But We Can’t Stop Here 

Friday’s sale was a market failure and a moral embarrassment, but the legal mandate that required it to happen is still on the books. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included a provision requiring the administration to hold lease sales in the Arctic Refuge coastal plain, regardless of market demand, taxpayer return, or the clear and consistent opposition of the Gwich’in Nation. 

That means another sale could happen. And another after that. 

That is why passing the Arctic Refuge Protection Act matters so much. Repealing the leasing mandate is the only way to ensure that these results are the last time we have to fight this fight.

Permanent protection for the coastal plain is what the Gwich’in Nation has asked for, what the ecological science demands, and what the market has now made undeniably clear.  

What Comes Next 

We need a Congress willing to repeal the leasing mandate. We need an administration committed to honoring the Gwich’in Nation’s rights and the public’s clear preference for protection over drilling. And we need to keep the pressure on, because the next opportunity to make permanent change will come, and we will be ready. 

Gwich’in members in front of the Capitol (Photo credit: Michael Block for the Arctic Defense Campaign)

Three failed lease sales. One clear conclusion: the Arctic Refuge coastal plain deserves permanent protection. Help us finish the job.

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Cover photo credit: Danielle Brigida, USFWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: June 5, 2026
Contact: Anja Semanco | anja@alaskawild.org | 724-967-2777 

Arctic Refuge Lease Sale Exposes Administration’s Reckless Gamble and the Market’s Clear Rejection 

Anchorage, AK — For the third time, a lease sale in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has produced results that fall catastrophically short of what Congress promised the American people when it authorized drilling in one of the nation’s most treasured wild places. 

Today’s sale produced just nine bids from two entities—the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) and HEX Energy LLC—neither of which represents the serious industry investment required to bring Arctic Refuge oil to market. Together they generated just $3,741,528 in total revenue—0.37% of the nearly $1 billion proponents claimed would offset the costs to the federal government of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Overall, all three sales have fallen short of producing even 1% of the total revenue from the 2017 Tax Act, which is split between the federal government and state of Alaska. No major oil company participated. No credible path to the promised revenue exists. 

The pattern is undeniable. The American taxpayers told this bargain was worth opening one of the country’s last intact ecosystems are still waiting for a return that has never materialized—and by today’s results, never will. 

“When Congress passed the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the American people were told that opening the Arctic Refuge to drilling would generate close to $1 billion in federal revenue,” said Kristen Miller, executive director of Alaska Wilderness League. “Today, the total return remains a fraction of that promise. Economic gain was a false justification to permanently sell off the most ecologically and culturally significant landscapes in the United States. The American people don’t want this, the oil industry doesn’t want this, and our public lands deserve so much better. The Arctic Refuge, traditional homelands of the Gwich’in people, deserves permanent protection.” 

This outcome was foreseeable. The world’s largest banks—Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and others—declined years ago to finance Arctic Refuge drilling. Major insurers declined to underwrite it. Oil companies with the capital and technical capacity to operate in one of the world’s most demanding environments looked at the cost structures, the logistical challenges, accelerating permafrost instability, and the long-term demand outlook for high-cost Arctic oil—and consistently chose not to bid. 

The Gwich’in Nation Has Opposed This From the Start 

The economic failure of these lease sales cannot be separated from the human cost of pursuing them. The coastal plain—what the Gwich’in people call “the Sacred Place Where Life Begins”—is the calving and nursery ground of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, which the Gwich’in Nation has depended upon for thousands of years for their physical, cultural, and spiritual well-being. 

The Gwich’in were not consulted when Congress opened this land to leasing, and they have opposed drilling at every turn—in Congress, before international bodies, and in the courts. They have been unequivocal: this is not a trade-off they will accept at any price. Given that the economic projections used to override their objections have now proven fiction, the case for continuing to do so has collapsed entirely. 

Three Failed Lease Sales Are Enough 

The Arctic Refuge coastal plain is the calving ground of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, one of the largest remaining terrestrial migrations on earth, and home to polar bears, musk oxen, wolves, Dall sheep, and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds. It is a landscape that cannot be restored once industrial development begins. 

Congress opened this land on the basis of a financial promise it could not keep—a promise that has now failed three times. The legal mandate requiring the administration to continue holding lease sales, regardless of market interest, taxpayer return, or the wishes of the Gwich’in Nation, should be repealed.

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