Democrats question legality of ANWR lease sale

摘要

House Natural Resources Democrats say the Trump administration is thumbing its nose at existing regulations so it can conduct the first-ever oil and gas lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. The Trump administration today published official notice of a Jan. 6 oil and gas lease sale in the 1.6-million-acre ANWR coastal plain. Sealed bids are due by Dec. 31 (Energywire, Dec. 4). In a letter today to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and California Democratic Reps. Jared Huffman and Alan Lowenthal argued that the sale schedule "almost certainly violates" regulations. Huffman leads the Water, Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee, and Lowenthal chairs the Energy and Mineral Resources panel. The lawmakers cited Bureau of Land Management requirements for a 30-day notice of sale in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska — a large block of federal land that lies west of ANWR where Interior has carried out an oil and gas program for many years. The oil and gas program in ANWR, mandated by the Republican-led Congress as part of the 2017 tax overhaul, is supposed to mirror regulations for the NPR-A.