In previously protected Alaskan refuge, auctions begin for drilling

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• Hari Sreenivasan:

  There was a head-spinning amount of news this week, so we wanted to dig back into one story that may have gotten lost in the shuffle for some viewers: The first sales of fossil fuel leases in previously protected public land in Alaska.

• Kate MacGregor:

  Good morning.

• Hari Sreenivasan:

  In a live-streamed auction in Anchorage on Wednesday, federal officials accepted bids for leases to explore oil and gas across 1.6 million acres of land — part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR.

• Kate MacGregor:

  Today, we're following Congress's direction and fulfilling that commitment to the nation and to Alaskans to develop a responsible oil and gas leasing program.

• Hari Sreenivasan:

  But the sale, taking place just two weeks before the end of the Trump Administration, was not the blockbuster some supporters had hoped for. Only half of the 22 tracts made available received any bids at all, and none of the major energy companies took part. The vast majority of the purchases were by a state-owned economic development group.

  In total, the auction raised $14.4 million, half of which goes to the state of Alaska. That's far less than the $1.8 billion that supporters estimated the leases could generate when the Republican-controlled Congress opened the refuge to oil and gas exploration in 2017.

• Adam Kolton:

  It was a massive flop for the Trump administration.

• Hari Sreenivasan:

  Adam Kolton is the executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League. He says the sale shows that it's not just environmental advocates and indigenous groups that think drilling in ANWR is a bad idea.

• Adam Kolton:

  Even the oil companies themselves are understanding the new landscape where it doesn't make sense to make up a 70 or 80-year bet that's only going to exacerbate climate change, face enormous environmental opposition, and when you do have a president-elect coming in that is committed to permanently protecting this incredible landscape.