"Intelligent life" as we know it requires multi-cellular heterotrophic organisms. That depends on an abundance of resources (energy et al) able to give rise not merely to life but to a robust ecosystem. Without enough ecological niches there aren't enough ways for life to diversify significantly. Without enough energy and other resources you won't have either the generation cycle time or the carrying capacity to enable evolution of "advanced" multi-cellular life. There are environments on Earth that support life but could not support the development of intelligent life, they just lack the resources to do so. That might be true for some environments throughout the Universe as well. There might be places where some life can survive but is constrained from advancing beyond simple single cellular organisms due to lack of resources.