Multiple top Alaskan officials are expressing outrage at the way the Biden administration is orchestrating its final congressionally mandated leasing of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Section 1002 land for fossil fuel exploration.
Both of Alaska’s U.S. senators, the state’s governor and local officials in the remote communities nearest the North Slope refuge collectively expressed that the Department of Interior’s planned January sale was set up in bad faith.
“These leases should be executed in good faith along the established historical processes. And obviously, the Biden administration in the past four years has just been brutal on Alaska,” said Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
“And, you know, they’re in the twilight of their term here. But nonetheless, they’re going to continue to double-down on denying Alaska opportunities, denying our people opportunities, denying America the opportunity to potentially get some more oil [exploration] going to the future.”
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Anchorage, Alaska. (Zihao Chen via Getty Images)
Dunleavy added that, despite his top perch in Juneau, he remained unclear on exactly what the Biden administration sought to gain by treating Alaska as alleged while buying energy from America’s rivals and working to shepherd in alternative fuels.
“I think when we look back on this over time, there’s going to be a lot of head-scratching as to what was the purpose of all this?” he said.
“I keep telling people the idea that nobody’s going to want oil if you don’t allow drilling in Alaska: it makes no sense.”
For his part, Dunleavy has expressed an openness to pursuing alternative fuels, including the idea of harnessing tides in the Kenai Peninsula’s Cook Inlet — the second-strongest in the world — to produce energy.
The governor said that just as the Biden administration cancelled leases in ANWR-1002, President-elect Trump could nix those moves.
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“They defied the spirit of the law itself,” he said. “So I look forward to January 20th.”
Meanwhile, leaders in the Inupiat village of Kaktovik — the only community within ANWR-1002 — slammed the structure of the lease sale.
Green interests have long claimed local residents and Native communities oppose development on their lands, but in a statement to Fox News Digital, Inupiat leaders disagreed.
“The release of the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program Record of Decision by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has left the community of Kaktovik, Alaska… frustrated and discontented,” a community representative said.
“The lands under question are the traditional lands of the Kaktovikmiut. However, it is apparent once again that outside, well-funded environmental groups have had the preferential voice during the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) process.”
Local leaders accused the administration of siding with outside interests, rather than hearing from locals who may not see it their way.
“Kaktovik does not support this outcome nor condone the process by which it was reached,” community leaders jointly said of the lease sale structure.
Edward Rexford, the Native village president, called it a “predetermined outcome,” and that as a small tribal entity, they were not afforded adequate opportunity to participate in the impact statement process.
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Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. (Getty Images)
“The City of Kaktovik is outraged by this result,” said Mayor Nathan Gordon, Jr.
Officials at the Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority (AIDEA) concurred, adding their analysis found the Biden administration’s record-of-decision blocked “nearly all development of even a small part” of ANWR-1002.
“Sadly, the Biden administration continues to take illegal actions to stop all natural resource development in Alaska,” said AIDEA executive director Randy Ruaro.
“Jobs from developing ANWR would offer high wages to Alaskans at a level that can keep families in-state.”
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In a statement, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said the sale is an “eleventh-hour” decision and “yet another charade aimed at subverting the will of Congress in the 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act.”
The Trump-era law was the policy that set the timeline and compelled the Biden administration to conduct the sale.
“It’s a fitting finale for an administration that has routinely allowed Iran, Venezuela and other adversaries to produce their resources, regardless of the consequences, while attempting to shut everything down in Alaska,” added Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of the Interior and the White House for response to the collective criticism, but did not receive a response by press time.