Heinrich Releases Statement Ahead of Oil and Gas Lease Sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Video Here

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, released the following statement ahead of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s lease sale for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge tomorrow,  June 5, which will open up the area’s 1.56 million acres for harmful drilling:

“I've been blessed to see the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with my own eyes. It is deeply connected to the traditions and daily life of the people who have lived there for thousands of years. For wildlife, it’s essential habitat. And it’s not just a reminder of the past – it’s hope for the future. Simply put, the Arctic Refuge is the crown jewel of the American National Wildlife Refuge System and has been ever since it was set aside in 1960 by President Eisenhower to protect its wildlife.

“To all the oil and gas majors, I have a message for you: I understand you have a job to do. That job never involves drilling in America’s national parks or America’s national wildlife refuges. Don’t bid.” 

VIDEO: U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, urges oil and gas executives to not bid in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Friday, June 5.

BACKGROUND

Today, no oil company holds leases on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge. Major companies, including Chevron and BP, have abandoned their Arctic Refuge interests entirely, in some cases paying millions to walk away. Every major bank in the United States and Canada has refused to finance Arctic Refuge drilling, citing no real industry interest, extreme costs, remoteness, and decades-long bipartisan opposition. 

Republicans have repeatedly tried to use Arctic drilling to help offset tax breaks for the wealthy. Trump’s first billionaire giveaway – the 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act – mandated lease sales in the Arctic Refuge that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would generate $1.8 billion. The first sale in 2021 generated less than one percent of that projected revenue, while the second in 2025 received zero bids. Republicans’ Big, Bad Bill repeated the same tactic, requiring more lease sales to pay for tax giveaways to the ultra-wealthy.

The Arctic Refuge, located in northeastern Alaska, is essential habitat for the endemic wildlife that lives there. It is also deeply connected to the traditions and daily life of the people who have lived there for thousands of years.

The Coastal Plain provides critical habitat for polar bears and the Porcupine Caribou Herd, which Alaska Native and Indigenous communities, particularly the Gwich’in people, depend on for subsistence. 

Earlier this year, Heinrich, along with U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, and U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), led 60 members in the Senate and House in a letter condemning the Trump administration’s plans to auction off sacred and sensitive lands within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas companies.

In December 2025, Heinrich delivered remarks on the Senate floor, stressing the need to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and urged his colleagues to vote no on a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution of disapproval that would upend the management plan for the Arctic Refuge, risking one of the world’s last great wild landscapes.

In October 2025, Heinrich delivered remarks on the Senate floor, blasting Republicans for pushing forward CRA resolutions of disapproval targeting BLM’s Resource Management Plans (RMPs), putting public lands and National Parks at risk from mining companies.

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