News
AWL Warns: “Smart Companies Won’t Bid on a Losing Bet”
February 2, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: February 2, 2026
Contact: Anja Semanco | 724-967-2777 | anja@alaskawild.org
As Trump Administration Opens Arctic Refuge to Oil Industry Nominations, Alaska Wilderness League Warns: “Smart Companies Won’t Bid on a Losing Bet”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Trump administration announced it is opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas nominations, the next step toward another lease sale in one of the most iconic and ecologically important landscapes in the United States.
Alaska Wilderness League is urging energy companies and their investors to sit this one out.
“Serious companies don’t gamble their future on the most remote, expensive, and controversial oil on Earth from one of the most unparalleled ecosystems left on this planet,” said Kristen Miller, executive director at Alaska Wilderness League. “If companies are still looking to drill the Arctic Refuge in 2026, it’s a sign that they can’t read the writing on the wall: smart money has already walked away.”
The Refuge lease program has already proven to be a market failure. Previous Arctic Refuge lease sales attracted virtually no industry interest, generating minimal bids and leaving taxpayers holding the bill. Meanwhile, major oil companies and financial institutions have publicly backed away from Arctic drilling, citing high costs, legal risks, and growing investor concerns about stranded assets.
A Bad Bet in a Changing Market
Arctic drilling faces steep financial and logistical hurdles:
- Some of the highest production costs in North America
- Extreme weather and infrastructure challenges
- Ongoing legal and regulatory uncertainty
- Growing global competition from cheaper renewables
- Escalating reputational and climate risks from rapid warming for companies and investors
Energy analysts increasingly warn that long-term, high-cost oil projects like those in the Arctic risk becoming stranded assets as markets shift toward cleaner, cheaper energy sources.
Wildlife Refuge, Not Oil Field
The Arctic Refuge is home to the Porcupine caribou herd, polar bears, migratory birds, and the coastal plain that the Gwich’in people call “the sacred place where life begins.” The coastal plain serves as the primary calving grounds for the Porcupine caribou herd, which sustains Indigenous communities and supports one of the longest land migrations on Earth. It also provides denning habitat for threatened polar bears and nesting and breeding grounds for millions of birds that migrate to every U.S. state and six continents each year.
For decades, Americans across the political spectrum have supported protecting the Refuge from industrial development, recognizing it as one of the last intact ecosystems of its kind left on the planet.
