By Jarrett Renshaw and Nichola Groom
(Reuters) -The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday will announce the cancellation of oil and gas leases in a federal wildlife refuge that were bought by an Alaska state development agency in 2021, according to sources briefed on the matter.
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) was issued seven leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a day before the inauguration of President Joe Biden, who had pledged to protect the 19.6 million-acre habitat for polar bears and caribou.
Interior and AIDEA officials were not immediately available for comment.
Under former President Donald Trump, the Interior Department in January of 2021 sold leases in ANWR over the objections of environmentalists and indigenous groups.
In June of that year, Biden's administration said it would suspend the leases issued in ANWR pending an environmental review. AIDEA later sued, and a federal judge in Alaska last month dismissed the state agency's claims, saying the government's delay in implementing the ANWR leasing program was reasonable.
The two other entities that won leases at the ANWR lease sale withdrew from their holdings in 2022.
For decades, Alaska officials pushed to open up drilling in ANWR to secure jobs and revenues for the state. But the oil and gas industry failed to embrace the 2021 lease sale, which generated just $14 million in high bids.
“We commend (Interior) Secretary (Deb) Haaland for canceling unlawfully issued oil-and-gas leases in the Arctic Refuge,” Abigail Dillen, president of environmental group Earthjustice, said in a statement. “Looking ahead, we hope to see the strongest possible protections for the Arctic Refuge and the Western Arctic in the years to come.”
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Washington and Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)
