“Drill Baby Drill” deserves a closer look at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The rallying cry sounds like energy policy, but the numbers tell a different story.

Three federal oil and gas lease sales have been held in ANWR’s 1.57-million-acre coastal plain since 2021. The first generated $14.4 million in bids, less than 1% of the billion dollars projected.

The second, in January 2025, drew zero bids.

The third, held June 5 of this year, produced $3.7 million from just two bidders — a state development authority and a small Cook Inlet gas company — covering 72,000 acres out of nearly 700,000 offered.

The major oil companies, the ones with the capital to actually develop an Arctic field, did not show up. As one analyst put it plainly: They have no appetite for it.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates 7.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil in ANWR’s coastal plain. Meanwhile, since the Iran war began Feb. 28, the U.S. has drained more than 58 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is already depleted to 349 million barrels, roughly half its 2009 peak.

The full 172-million-barrel release now underway would consume the equivalent of more than two years’ worth of ANWR’s theoretical maximum production before a single well is even drilled.

ANWR is not an energy solution. It is a political slogan standing in front of an empty auction room.

— Paul G. Southland