Climate Politics
Biden Sets Last-Minute Auction of Arctic Refuge Oil Rights
- Interior Department offers minimum acreage for January sale
- Trump administration can still hold sale of Alaska region
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, on July 1.
Photographer:Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post /Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The Biden administration plans to sell drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a last-minute maneuver that could complicate the incoming administration’s plans for driving robust oil development in the region.
Under the decision issued Monday, the Interior Department will put just 400,000 acres (161,870 hectares) of the refuge’s nearly 1.6 million acre coastal plain available on the auction block on Jan. 9 — the smallest amount possible under federal law. The auction is one of two sales Congress mandated in 2017 as a way to pay for tax cuts.