The U.S. Department of the Interior announced it will hold a lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in November.
The lease sale will take place in Anchorage Wednesday Nov. 7. Companies will be able to bid for drilling access to four and a half million acres of land.
Last month, the Department of Interior announced its plan for drilling in the NPR-A. The entire Alaska Congressional delegation slammed the proposal, saying it locked up 23 million acres from development.
This will be the second lease sale in the reserve in two years. The sale will take place one day after the election. The announcement will allow the Obama campaign to further tout its “all of the above energy” strategy. The president and Democrats have taken heat for not encouraging enough oil and gas drilling on federal land.
pgranitz (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 202.488.1961 | About Peter
