In 2018, the Trump administration estimated opening Alaskas pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development would generate $1.8 billion in federal revenue over a decade. Independent analysts dismissed that economic outlook as, among other things, a pipe dream .

On Wednesday afternoon, as pro-Trump extremists violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in a naked attempt to subvert American democracy, the Trump administration held its long-anticipated, highly controversial Arctic refuge lease sale.

Just three entities two small oil companies and an Alaska state-owned economic development corporation bid on roughly half of the 1.09 million acres up for grabs. The sale generated a measly $14.4 million, less than 1% of the administrations total revenue estimates. Thats an average of $27 per acre, only slightly above the $25 minimum bid price.

The state agency, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, placed the top bid on all but two of the 11 tracts that received bids. The revenues from the leases, if ultimately approved, will be split 50/50 between the federal government and the state of Alaska.

Much as the rioting in D.C. on Wednesday capped Trumps long record of inciting political violence, the lease sale is a fitting finale for the administrations anti-conservation legacy. Trump and his team have spent four years bending over backward for fossil fuel and other extractive industries, with little concern for how its energy dominance agenda will impact the climate and wildlife.