Merkley Statement on Oil and Gas Lease Sales from Republican Big, Ugly Betrayal Law Failing to Meet the Levels Promised

Merkley Statement on Oil and Gas Lease Sales from Republican Big, Ugly Betrayal Law Failing to Meet the Levels Promised

Republicans Claimed that Opening ANWR to Oil and Gas Lease Sales Would Net More Than $900 Million Over 10 Years

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, released the below statement after the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management released a report stating that oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) totaled $3.7 million, with $1.8 million going to the federal government. This is tens of millions of dollars short of what Republicans anticipated would be brought in when they drafted the language in their One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that they passed last summer.

"We have seen this play before, and the ending is the same. These lease sales do not come close to bringing in the revenues that Republicans claimed," said Ranking Member Jeff Merkley. "The data is crystal clear, and the facts show that these leases don't make a dent in paying for the tax breaks that Republicans gifted the wealthy and big corporations last year. Sadly, this is just another example of Republicans running roughshod over essential environmental protections to justify their One Big Betrayal of the American people. Going forward, Congress must ensure it's taking all available evidence into account when projecting potential revenue for projects that clearly continue to fail."

In 2017, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the federal share from two lease sales in ANWR authorized in that year's Republican reconciliation bill would yield $910 million over ten years but ultimately yielded only $3.7 million. Half of these sales proceeds go to the federal government. Republicans claimed that the provisions they included in OBBBA would yield over $900 million, including $452 million for the federal government. Independent organizations, like Taxpayers for Common Sense, projected significantly lower revenues from ANWR lease sales at between $3 million and $30 million over ten years. OBBBA requires four lease sales to be held by 2035.

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