Tell Trump: No Bids for Arctic Oil — Take the Hint

The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet — one of the clearest warning signs of the accelerating climate crisis. Scientists warn that continued fossil fuel expansion is pushing the planet toward more extreme heat, rising seas, and worsening climate disasters.

Yet instead of working to reduce the pollution driving this crisis, the Trump administration is pushing ahead with plans to expand offshore oil drilling in Alaska’s Cook Inlet — doubling down on the very fossil fuels that are heating the planet.

And the first big test of that plan just collapsed.

In an auction that closed this month, the Trump administration offered more than 1 million acres of federal waters in Cook Inlet for oil and gas drilling in a high-profile lease sale meant to kick off a new era of Arctic development.

The result?

Not a single company placed a bid. 

After months of hype about expanding oil production in Alaska and Donald Trump’s boasting about his “Drill Baby Drill” policies, the auction ended with zero interest from the industry it was designed to benefit.

That should be a wake-up call for Donald Trump and his cabinet. Even Big Oil doesn’t seem interested in what they’re selling.

Cook Inlet has long been viewed as an important energy basin, but experts say its oil and gas resources have been declining for years — and what remains is increasingly difficult and expensive to extract. Drilling there would also threaten endangered and threatened species and force companies to operate in icy, dangerous waters, making offshore operations far more risky.

Yet the Trump administration is continuing its aggressive push to expand drilling in Alaska’s waters as part of its broader fossil fuel agenda.

Instead of recognizing both the economic reality and the climate consequences of expanding oil production, the administration appears determined to keep forcing Arctic drilling schemes that lock the United States into more fossil fuel dependence.

At a time when scientists say we must rapidly reduce fossil fuel use to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, doubling down on new Arctic drilling is exactly the wrong direction.

This failed lease sale sends a clear message: Arctic drilling isn’t the future.

The Trump administration should listen.

Sign the petition: Tell the Trump administration to stop pushing Arctic oil drilling and start putting our climate first.

The petition to Donald Trump’s Department of the Interior reads: Stop pushing offshore oil and gas drilling across the Arctic after your first Cook Inlet lease sale received zero bids from industry. Instead of forcing risky fossil fuel projects that even oil companies aren’t interested in, your agency should focus on ending new fossil fuel expansion and addressing the climate crisis.
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Sources: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/climate/cook-inlet-alaska-lease-sale-bids.html

https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026/03/trumps-first-offshore-oil-and-gas-lease-sale-in-alaska-gets-no-takers-00812585
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Photo credit TJ Allen