Senator Markey Statement on Lack of Bids for Mandatory Arctic Refuge Lease Sale

Washington (January 8, 2025) - Senator Edward J. Markey, a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, released the following statement today after the Department of the Interior announced that the Bureau of Land Management received no bids for the December oil and gas lease sale for theCoastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge(Arctic Refuge), which was mandated by the Republican-passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017.
“Today confirms what we already knew back in 2017: new oil and gas extraction in the Arctic Refuge is not only bad for people, climate, and the environment, but also simply bad economics. The fact that there were no bids on the most recent lease sale reflects that reality. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge sustains key species and Alaska Native peoples, including the Indigenous Gwich’in and Iñupiat. This failed mandatory lease sale only underscores how the Republicans’ 2017 tax giveaway for the ultra-wealthy was paid for with false promises and unnecessary efforts to sell off our public lands,”said Senator Markey.“I will fight against any similar giveaway efforts this Congress, and I look forward to reintroducing myArctic Refuge Protection Actto permanently provide critical protections to the Refuge, uphold the sovereignty of Arctic Indigenous peoples, and halt any new oil and gas leasing, exploration, development, and drilling on our nation’s largest national wildlife refuge.”
Senator Markey has long been a champion for protecting the Arctic and safeguarding subsistence practices of Alaska Native groups. On September 16, 2024, Senator Markey and Representative Jared Huffman (CA-02) led 53 of their colleagues in aletterto Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Tracy Stone-Manning, Director of the Bureau of Land Management, urging them to expand and provide new protections to additional areas of America’s Western Arctic.
On October 26, 2023, Senators Markey and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Representative Huffman led their colleagues ina letter to President Joe Bidenurging his administration to establish the strongest possible protections for America’s Arctic, following the President’s earlier decision to cancel unlawful Arctic leases and strengthen protections for Special Areas. In February 2023, Senators Markey, Cantwell, Heinrich, and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), along with Representatives Huffman and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01),reintroducedtheArcticRefuge Protection Act, bipartisan legislation to restore critical protections to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, by designating the Coastal Plain ecosystem as wilderness under the National Wilderness Preservation System. In March 2023, Senator Markey and Representative Grijalvaled a letterto President Biden asking the administration to reject the Willow Master Development Plan, a massive oil and gas development proposal on public land in the Western Arctic.
In December 2020, Representative Huffman and Senator Markeyled29 Senate and 79 House members in a letter opposing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas lease sale scheduled for January 6, 2021.
###