FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 4, 2026
The Big Beautiful Cook Inlet (BBC1) Oil and Gas Lease Sale Was a Flop
Zero bids received on Big Beautiful Cook Inlet Oil & Gas Lease sale
HOMER, AK— The Department of Interior announced that there were zero bids in today’s Big Beautiful Cook Inlet (BBC1) oil and gas lease sale. This lease sale, held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), was a product of the One Big Beautiful Bill’s six mandated lease sales in Lower Cook Inlet, on which the federal government is refusing to conduct National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews. The lack of industry interest in oil and gas drilling in Lower Cook Inlet has been repeatedly proven and remains true today.
Lack of industry interest in the federal waters of Cook Inlet is not new. The past two federal offshore lease sales have resulted in a single bid by Hilcorp, who is the sole owner of the eight active leases in the federal waters of Cook Inlet. In 2024, Hilcorp relinquished 7 of its previous holdings, and according to the BOEM website, there is no pending exploration plan for any of the active leases.
Today’s lease sale once again revealed the lack of industry interest in lower Cook Inlet drilling and the continued political theater surrounding offshore drilling in Alaska,” said Bridget Maryott, co-executive director at Cook Inletkeeper. “Continuing to hold lease sales with zero interest and strong local opposition to drilling is a blatant waste of taxpayers’ money. With BOEM’s own warnings about oil spill risks and the agency’s severe understaffing for inspecting and enforcing regulations on the oil rigs in Alaska, we have narrowly avoided disaster.
In July of 2025, Congress passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which included a section requiring BOEM to hold at least six offshore oil and gas lease sales in Alaska, one each year from 2026 to 2028, and again from 2030 to 2032. Today’s sale was the first of six moving forward under the budget reconciliation law, and is just a part of a wider federal effort to promote an offshore oil and gas agenda in Lower Cook Inlet- including the proposed five lease sales currently drafted as part of the 11th Outer Continental Shelf Plan (OCS).
Ahead of the sale, Cook Inletkeeper joined with an AK tribal nation, and community and environmental groups to formally notify Interior Secretary Doug Burgum of their intent to sue if the sale proceeded without the required consultation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The notice challenged the failure to consult with federal wildlife agencies about impacts to endangered and protected species — including the critically endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale, the northern sea otter, Stellar’s eider, and other species protected under the law. Beyond chronic harms like noise pollution and vessel strikes, a major oil spill in Cook Inlet would devastate already fragile species populations.
BOEM itself has acknowledged that Cook Inlet — a stretch of sea known for its extreme tidal changes and central to southcentral Alaska’s ecology, economy, and culture — is one of the most ecologically sensitive regions in the Outer Continental Shelf, while their projections show little economically recoverable natural gas.
“This administration’s aggressive agenda and failure to comply with fundamental environmental laws in the first of these federal lease sales reveal everything you need to know about how these sales will be handled,” states Loren Barrett, co-executive director at Cook Inletkeeper. “Cook Inlet is home to endangered wildlife, thriving coastal communities and economies, robust commercial and subsistence fisheries, and is not a political bargaining chip. We will continue to demand lawful process and public participation as long as these sales persist.”
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