BLM prepares for ‘upcoming’ leasing on ANWR coastal plain

The Trump administration is asking companies to nominate tracts for an “upcoming” oil and gas lease sale on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a step that would seem to prepare the way for a sale in January.

The Alaska state office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released a “call for nominations and comments on the lease tracts considered” in a notice set for publication in the Nov.  17 Federal Register.

The notice, including a map of tracts, was set for publication Nov. 17 in the Federal Register and gives companies 30 days to submit their nominations and comments, in keeping with established BLM procedures.

If the BLM gives itself a few hours consider nominations and comments, it could announce Dec. 17 a lease sale date and possibly get it published in the Dec. 18 Federal Register, to be followed by another 30-day period, again in keeping with BLM practice. Jan. 17 will fall on a Sunday, and Jan. 18 will be a federal holiday.

That would leave one day, Jan. 19, for a lease sale before Joe Biden is inaugurated as president. Biden is opposed to allowing exploration leasing for oil and gas in ANWR.

An added complication comes from litigation. There are four or five lawsuits challenging the record of decision on the leasing plan, said Kara Moriarty, president of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. Her group has filed to intervene in the cases in defense of the plan.

Environmental activists are pursuing that legal avenue presumably with the hope that the plan will be remanded to BLM for changes, which would put the plan in the hands of a Biden administration.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 requires an ANWR lease sale no later than Dec. 22, 2021, 4 years after the act was signed into law. It is common for agencies to miss deadlines, but that does not mean courts would allow delays to continue indefinitely.