Richard Killmer: Biden cancels all drilling leases in the Arctic Refuge

In May 2022, I wrote an op-ed for The Holland Sentinel on my visit with 12 Gwich’in people who were talking to members of Congress in Washington, D.C. They were telling me about their love for their pristine homeland in the Canadian National Parks of Ivvavik and Vuntut in Yukon, Canada, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

They are an ancient people who have been connected spiritually and physically to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for 20,000 years. They are a living portrait of what ancient hunter-gatherers look like.

For Alaska’s Gwich’in people, the Arctic Refuge is a critical part of both their community and their faith. The Gwich’in people rely on the Porcupine Caribou as a primary source of food and their very survival. More than 70 percent of their diet comes from caribou. For them, the caribou is more than food and clothing; it is literally and spiritually who they are.

After my meeting with the Gwich’in, a young man came up to me and showed me a photograph on his phone. He told me that in the foreground of the photo was his backyard. In the middle, he said, was a river. The beautiful land at the top of the photo, the man reported, is where the oil companies are going to drill for oil and gas. He told me that he was very sad thinking that his two boys were going to have to grow up so close to rigs that were going to extract oil and gas. I understood. I wouldn’t want my children and grandchildren living in the backyard of oil rigs.

In 2017, President Trump’s tax bill was supported by Congress and became the law of the land. It required that there be a sale of leases for drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic Refuge. In a study, the National Academy of Sciences concluded that oil development would harm wildlife and their habitats, especially the Porcupine Caribou herd in the Arctic Refuge.

The first sale of the leases was held in 2020. The next one will be in 2024. On Jan. 6, the Trump administration held the first lease sale for tracts on the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge, and the results were surprising. No major oil companies showed up to bid and only nine tracts were sold out of 22 offered. The sale generated only 1 percent of projected revenue, according to the government watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Several realities probably influenced the poor showing of fossil fuel companies at the lease sale. First, the future economic viability of fossil fuels is in question. Many automobile companies like General Motors and Ford have stated that they will only make electric vehicles after 2035, and most nations are committed to achieving net zero greenhouse-gas emissions at least by 2050. Second, financing oil exploration and drilling has become harder, with most of the large banks declaring that they will not lend money for drilling in the Arctic. Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is just not economically feasible.

In September 2023, the Biden Administration announced that it would prohibit drilling in 13 million acres of pristine wilderness in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and cancel all drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. However, the administration will abide by the provisions of the 2017 tax bill that require a second Arctic refuge lease sale by the end of 2024, according to an administration official.

The new regulations would ensure what the administration called “maximum protections” for nearly half of the petroleum reserve land but would not stop the enormous $8 billion Willow oil drilling project in the same vicinity, which President Biden approved this year. Climate activists, particularly young environmentalists, were angered by Mr. Biden’s decision in March to allow the Willow project, calling it a “carbon bomb.” Many called the move a betrayal of Mr. Biden’s campaign promise of “no new drilling, period” on federal lands and waters.

Since then, the administration has worked hard to reduce the carbon emissions that result from burning oil and gas and that are driving climate change.

“We have a responsibility to protect this treasured region for all ages,” Mr. Biden said in a statement. “Canceling all remaining oil and gas leases issued under the previous administration in the Arctic Refuge and protecting more than 13 million acres in the western Arctic will help preserve our Arctic lands and wildlife, while honoring the culture, history, and enduring wisdom of Alaska Natives who have lived on these lands since time immemorial.”

I am glad that my young Gwich’in friend’s sons will not have to grow up next to an oil rig.

— Rev. Richard Killmer is a retired Presbyterian minister living in East Grand Rapids.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Richard Killmer: Biden cancels all drilling leases in the Arctic Refuge