A huge federal offshore drilling lease sale in Alaska is unpopular with fossil fuel companies.
Despite at least one lawsuit and fierce opposition from environmental groups, almost a million acres of federal land in Alaska was put up for auction for oil and gas drilling. The lease sale was revived by Joe Manchin.
The coal baron from West Virginia made Lease Sale 258 into a bargaining chip, refusing to vote for the climate focused Inflation Reduction Act unless the fossil fuel auction was mandated by the bill. He was able to get his way. The IRA tied future expansion of wind and solar energy to the continuation of oil and gas drilling, as well as the re- opening of Lease Sale 258. The Interior Department and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management went ahead with the sale despite multiple lawsuits.
Nobody really wants to drill in the Cook inlet, so not even Manchin's efforts could change that. The initial lease sale was canceled by the feds, not out of concern for the beluga whales that reside there, but due to lack of industry interest.
The sale didn't appeal anymore because it wasn't canceled. The only company to submit a bid was Hilcorp Alaska. For a single block of the total up for grabs, it offered 63,988. The official three-page document was drafted by someone at BOEM to note the lone Hilcorp bid. There was a lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico in which 33 companies bid on a total of 308 tracts.
Manchin held a package of federal legislation hostage over a fossil fuel auction that even fossil fuel companies don't care about. The lease sale 258 was a flop according to an attorney with Earthjustice. It is good news for the climate and the result should be a halt to the leasing of public lands for fossil fuels.
BOEM will evaluate Hilcorp's offer for 90 days to determine if it is worth anything. The company will probably add a single plot to its holdings. It's not clear what will happen to the land.
Hilcorp is the largest fossil fuel corporation in the Cook inlet basin, and it is the only one that has bought up federal leases. The company bought pre-existing federal inlet leases in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management sale. The company hasn't submitted any exploration plans for the 14 plots since 2004, according to a report. It has leased them but has yet to develop them. Earther reached out to Hilcorp with questions, but did not get a response.
The Cook inlet lease was unpopular before it was unpopular in 2017: There were no bids at the 2004 federal lease sale in the Cook Inlet and only two at the 1997 auction.
Roger Marks told Alaska Public Media that the geology of the federal land in the Cook inlet is not ideal for fossil fuel exploration. He said that all the production has been on state land. There is good geology on state land. It's just under federal land.
The region's climate doesn't help It is a harsh environment to operate in due to weather, darkness, ice and other conditions which makes the many harms inherent in offshore drilling even riskier. Excess pollution has been caused by that added risk. Hilcorp has had numerous oil spills and gas leaks in the inlet from platforms and pipelines, as well as problems with trying to stop them from leaking due to ice.
Hilcorp does more than its share of harm, even though it's a lesser-known name. According to a New York Times analysis, Hilcorp is the largest methane polluter in the US. The company is still our federal government's lessee.
Hilcorp was the only company interested in Lease Sale 258 and most of the Cook inlet remains un-drilled. More federal holdings will be auctioned off to fossil fuel companies in the years to come, in areas that are more likely to be used for drilling. The Gulf of Mexico sales will go forward this year thanks to Manchin. Fossil fuel lease needs to end to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. There is no path to a stable and sustainable Earth that includes more oil and gas development.
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