The Alaska Senate race is a toss-up this year, which is remarkable given how Democrats in Washington keep demonstrating their zeal to stop economic development in the state. They did it again before they left town last month, blocking a bill that would have aided oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
In 2017 Congress required the Interior Secretary to create a plan for developing oil and gas in the ANWR coastal plain with a competitive program for leasing, developing and transporting the resources. The Biden Administration quickly suspended the leases in 2021 pending environmental review. Joe Biden's Interior Secretary later canceled the leases. The political seesaw left developers without enough confidence in stable policy to make the large investments required to get the region's rich reserves out of the ground.
Trump II has opened more development leases for bidding, but companies are understandably wary of investing in projects that can be shut down by the next Democratic administration. In June the Bureau of Land Management's ANWR lease sale offered some 689,000 acres for lease but received bids on about 70,000 acres, worth about $3.7 million.
Enter Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, who proposed to provide some federal assurance that the leases can't be canceled by the stroke of a pen. The Alaska's Right to Produce Act 2.0 would have prevented leases in the coastal plain oil and gas leasing program from being canceled unless the lessee is in violation of the lease terms.
Democrats and the climate lobby blocked it from getting a vote on the Senate floor. Defenders of Wildlife said the bill would produce "rampant oil and gas drilling," while Sen. Martin Heinrich (D., N.M.) called it "another bill that would prioritize oil and gas over literally everything else."
That's odd, since New Mexico is a major oil and gas producing state and Mr. Heinrich's constituents profit from it. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says New Mexico had 4.15 trillion cubic feet of gross natural gas withdrawals in 2025, far more than Alaska.
Opponents say oil and gas leases in ANWR would destroy wildlife habitats, spoil the wilderness and infringe on sacred indigenous lands. But no one is proposing to pave the Arctic. If all of the 2026 leases offered had been purchased, the less than 700,000 acres would have been a small fraction of the more than 19 million acre wildlife refuge.
Progressives want Alaska to be a nature preserve for tourism and dog-sled races. But the oil industry makes up a significant portion of Alaska's GDP, and future oil and gas leases will add jobs and tax revenue. It also serves America's energy needs and national-security interests. Across his two terms, Sen. Sullivan has been a champion for bringing investment to a state that needs more of both, while protecting the environment.
His opponent, Mary Peltola, initially co-sponsored a version of this legislation when she was in the U.S. House. When the vote took place on the floor, she voted "present." Ms. Peltola could provide the 51st vote to give Democrats a majority, and then vote "present" to put even more of Alaska's vast energy resources in a deep political freeze.
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