Caribou in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Photo Courtesy of USFWS National Wildlife Refuge System.
Whitehorse, YT – The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation and Yukon MP Brendan Hanley are celebrating after the second round of oil and gas lease bidding for Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ended without any bids, a victory for those opposing drilling in the area.
The U.S. Interior Department reported the lack of bids with drilling advocates seeing the Refuge’s coastal plain as a potential source of economic revenue while environmental and Indigenous communities strongly oppose exploration citing risks to wildlife and sacred lands.
The Coastal Plain is vital to the Porcupine caribou herd whose calving grounds lie within the Refuge. The caribou are a cornerstone of Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation (VGFN) culture, subsistence and identity. A press release from the First Nation states that oil and gas would pose grave environmental and cultural risks.
“The absence of any interest in this second oil and gas lease sale confirms what we have been saying for decades: that there is little to gain and much to lose by drilling in Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit—the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,” said VGFN Chief Pauline Frost in the release.
Chief Frost called for the U.S. Government to permanently protect the refuge.
Yukon MP Brendan Hanley expressed his support, emphasizing the need to prioritize Indigenous rights and environmental stewardship to protect the Arctic’s fragile ecosystem.
The state of Alaska has filed a lawsuit against the Interior Department arguing that the current sale restrictions conflict with a 2017 law aimed at opening the Coastal Plain to oil exploration.
