Sullivan claims ANWR lease sale flop a success
The state of Alaska was the major bidder in the ANWR oil lease sale, followed by Hex Energy LLC, a small Alaska company.
The Alaska Industrial Develoment & Export Authority is not going to spend billions to explore and develop oil in the refuge. Neither is Hex Energy, a company owned by John Hendrix, a beneficiary of AIDEA.
No one believes this lease sale was a success, though a variety of prepared statements from disappointed parties are claiming otherwise.
Last summer the Congressional Budget Office predicted the lease sale would generate $96 million for the federal government. The sale generated $3.7 million. Half of the proceeds go to the state.
The CBO said this sale and three to follow would generate $452 million for the federal treasury by 2034. There is no reason to trust that prediction.
In 2017, the budget office predicted $1 billion in lease revenues from ANWR from future sales. The first lease sale, held five years ago, brought in $16.5 million and the second brought in nothing.
This was the first lease sale conducted under Trump rules that might have staying power, however, which is why the ANWR oil boosters thought the results would be different.
The supporters of oil development in ANWR all proclaimed that this massive flop was a victory, refusing to make any mention of why the oil industry boycotted the event.
I believe it is because the industry sees ANWR oil development as a public relations disaster. Nothing is going to change on that score for years to come, if it ever does. The lobbying over the last five decades has had a profound impact on public opinion in the U.S.
About two-thirds of those polled last year in a nationwide survey opposed ANWR oil drilling.
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska does not come with the public relations baggage attached to oil exploration in ANWR.
Sen. Dan Sullivan claims the lease sale had a “solid showing.” The only solid showing was of oil industry disinterest.
He appears to be blaming Joe Biden and “Lower 48 eco-colonialists” for the decision by oil company colonialists to stay home.
Sullivan can’t admit the lease sale was a failure and not because of eco-colonialists.
He has been proven wrong in claiming for years that the oil industry was eager to pay big bucks to explore and develop oil in ANWR.
“I applaud the participants in today’s sale,” Sullivan said Friday, without mentioning the lack of participants.
That government was the main participant and that Hendrix doesn’t have the resources to handle ANWR development are the two big takeaways.
Nagruk Harcharek, president of The Voice of the Inupiat, a pro-oil lobby group, declared the lease sale was a great success because it happened. He said the lease sale results “give us cautious optimism.”
Harcharek, who calls himself a “highly analytical executive,” said in congressional testimony last year that he had “cautious optimism” about the Trump administration. He also said he had “cautious optimism” when the Trump administration revoked Biden policies.
Kaktovik Mayor Nathan Gordon praised the “successful lease sale” It would be bad form to praise an unsuccessful lease sale.
Arctic Slope President Rex Rock Sr. said the sale “sets the stage” for the economic foundation of the North Slope.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy claimed the sale was a success because it “reinforces Alaska's position as a global energy leader and helps ensure that the tremendous resource potential of ANWR remains available to support jobs, economic growth, and energy security for generations to come.”
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