Companies must submit sealed bids no later than 4 p.m. Alaska time Dec. 31 for oil and gas exploration leases on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), according to a notice published Dec. 7 in the Federal Register.
The bids will be opened Jan. 6 starting at 10 a.m. Alaska time, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said in its notice. The opening and reading of the bids can be viewed via video livestreaming.
The date for ANWR leasing was announced several days earlier without the precise timing details (OGJ Online, Dec. 3, 2020).
Three Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee reacted with a denunciation of the plan and an argument that the schedule failed to follow BLM regulations, a criticism that may prefigure a lawsuit charging the agency with violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), and Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) noted that under BLM rules, publication of a notice of sale “shall be at least 30 days prior to the date of the sale.” However, the Dec. 7 notice says bids must be received no later than Dec. 31.
“BLM appears to be pretending to adhere to the regulation by waiting until January 6, 2021, to open the bids, but simply saying that is the date of ‘the lease sale’ defies common sense and almost certainly violates the regulation,” the lawmakers wrote.
When the Interior Department, including both BLM and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as leasing agencies, has held lease sales in recent years, the agency has referred to the date of bid opening as the sale date.
The lease sale will be for tracts in what is called the Section 1002 area of ANWR. The name derives from the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), a 1980 law that codified federal protections for ANWR. Section 1002 of the law provided for geophysical surveys of part of the coastal plain with an eye toward eventual oil and gas development if authorized by Congress.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 provided the authorization and went farther, making it a mandate.
