According to Reuters, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management held a petroleum exploration lease sale for territory it controls in Alaska, and only one bidder showed up, ConocoPhillips. In the first such federal lease sale held in Alaska by the Obama administration, the company submitted five bids totaling $779,995 for parcels near some of its existing development prospects. BLM officials say they were disappointed in the poor result, but blamed conditions in the oil and gas industry. BLM's Alaska director said of the result, "I think it could possibly reflect the state of the industry in Alaska right now." Read much more from Reuters, here. By the way, Alaska Beat (not a psychologist) notices that not only is that quote's main verb qualified twice ("could possibly"), but the verb itself ("reflect") contains the idea of a separate surface mediating reality for perceivers. We're not sure what to make of that, but it's interesting. And, for further reading, if you're interested in the ongoing conflict between the state of Alaska and BLM over alleged drilling violations and "lost" legacy wellheads in NPR-A, read this Petroleum News article from earlier this week.