Trump Offers Alaska to the Highest Bidder

(This undated photo shows the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The Trump administration now intends to open up the bidding for companies to lease the land and obtain drilling rights, bucking three decades of environmental protections. Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, via Getty Images.)

Last week, as concerns regarding the US Postal Service took over the news cycle, the Trump administration flew under the radar with an announcement that should have evoked world-wide outrage: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will now be open for drilling, and oil and gas rights will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Republicans have been pushing to gain access to this land for drilling purposes for the last 30 years. This latest move marks yet another destructive Trumpian aggression — like a giant, orange fist slamming down on the proverbial ant.

This maneuver will allow 1.6 million-acres of pristine wilderness on the coastal plain, home to migrating caribou and waterfowl as well as polar bears and foxes that live there year-round, to be leased. Fossil fuel development is officially king again, and one can almost hear Reagan from beyond lamenting that even he couldn’t get that far.

(A protective grizzly bear with her cubs looking for salmon in McNeil River, Alaska, July 2015, home to the largest concentration of grizzly bears in the world. Bears of all ages congregate on the McNeil River between June and August to feed on the salmon traveling upstream to spawn. Photo by Daniel Wise/Barcroft Images, via Getty Images.)

The decision to now drill into land, that has remained untouched for three decades despite being under siege from Republicans desperate to gain access, is expected to generate an intense legal battle. The Interior Department confirmed on Aug. 17 that it had completed its required reviews, and would begin preparations to auction off drilling leases. Opposing environmentalists, who have fought for decades to protect this refuge from energy companies, will argue that the Department of the Interior has failed to properly measure the impact of drilling on climate change and wildlife.

Trump has been touting Arctic drilling as a cornerstone of his policy to expand domestic fossil fuel production on federal lands in an effort to secure America’s “energy dominance.” Republicans have tried plunder the prized refuge as a lucrative source of oil and gas ever since the Reagan administration first recommended drilling in 1987, but efforts to open it up had long been thwarted by Democratic lawmakers until 2017, when the GOP took advantage of having control of both houses of Congress to pass a bill authorizing lease sales.

Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden has called for the permanent protection of the wildlife refuge, but even if he were to win the election in November, it might be impossible for his administration to overturn existing lease rights if they have already been auctioned to energy companies. Trump’s plan has been backed by lawmakers in Alaska, as well as by local energy firms and other Alaska Native groups, who have said that drilling could provide much-needed jobs and revenue for the state, where oil production has declined since the 1980s.

(In this undated photo, caribou from the Porcupine Caribou Herd migrate onto the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. The refuge takes up an area nearly the size of South Carolina in Alaska's northeast corner. Photo by US Fish and Wildlife Service, via Associate Press.)

There are also several factors at play that remain unknown, such as how many companies will actually bid for rights and whether the lease program will generate as much revenue for the federal government as was intended. The Trump Administration is estimating the drilling rights will produce a $1.8 billion windfall but a New York Times analysis last year suggested it could be much lower, totaling just $45 million.

Another unpredictable aspect of estimating the true economic benefit of Trump’s plan is that very little is actually known about exactly how much oil resides under the coastal plain. Another independent arctic investigation found evidence that the only well ever drilled within the refuge’s boundaries was a disappointment.

Additionally, seismic studies — which can give strong clues as to the location and size of oil and gas reservoirs — were most recently performed in the 1980s, when the technology was less sophisticated. The Department of the Interior canceled a seismic study that was planned for the area in 2019, a move that was seen as a victory at the time for environmentalists, but could now been seen as a way to obfuscate the true value of the land right before bidding begins.

(The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on June 2004. Photo by US Fish and Wildlife Service, via Getty Images.)

All of this comes on the heels of a new study concluding on the same week as the Trump Alaskan drilling announcement, that Greenland’s ice sheet glaciers have hit the point of no return. The report ultimately concluded that the “Greenland Ice Sheet is losing mass at accelerated rates in the 21st century, making it the largest single contributor to rising sea levels.” Bottom line: if the climate were to stop warming today, or even cool a little, Greenland's ice will still continue to melt.

We are at a critical phase in the need for wide-spread climate change awareness and action. We can see the effects of the sustained damage to the environment all around us with temperature changes, raging fires and weather events like hurricane and storms. In addition to that, we have scientific evidence of the continued damage to the environment and the subsequent, impending fallout we can expect.

I guess Donald Trump and his supporters are looking to cash in before the entire planet is inevitably destroyed, and will just let their offspring fend for themselves.

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Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter and is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.

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