Washington, DC – Today, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, released the below statement following the U.S. Department of the Interior’s announcement that more than 13 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) would be withdrawn from oil and gas leasing and that seven leases awarded to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) from the January 2021 lease sale within the non-wilderness Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) would be canceled. 

“I can’t explain to the American people why we would willingly become more dependent on foreign oil imports, eliminate good paying American jobs and drive up the cost of our electric bills and gas prices across the country. This is yet another example of this administration caving to the radical left with no regard for clear direction from Congress or American energy security. Let’s be clear — this is another attempt to use executive action to circumvent a law to accomplish what this administration does not have the votes to achieve in Congress. Canceling valid leases, removing acreage from future sales, and attempting to reduce production in Alaska while taking steps to allow Iran and Venezuela to produce more oil — with fewer environmental regulations — makes no sense and is frankly embarrassing.” 

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 mandated two lease sales of not less than 400,000 acres within the Coastal Plain of ANWR. The first sale was held in January of 2021 and a second sale is required to occur prior to December 22, 2024.