A federal lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could come as early as July, 2019. Joe Bal- ash, Assistant Interior Secretary for Lands and Min- erals, said the Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision for leasing is to be complete by late spring. The lease sale comes after that, Balash said in a brie ng Thursday, May 30. The federal Tax and Jobs Act of 2017 requires that two ANWR sales be held with not less than 400,000 acres offered in

each sale. One issue Interior is wrestling with is how to handle a 2,000-acre limit on surface disturbance when leases are sold. This is a complication because bidders would not know how limits will be applied across the tracts that might be sold. Balash said the department is still working on this. Agencies are also working on the lease stipulations, although stipulations used in leasing in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska are being used as a model, Balash said.