Federal judge rules against state agency to maintain oil and gas lease halt - Alaska's News Source

Federal judge rules against state agency to maintain oil and gas lease halt

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A state agency that appealed a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leases on Alaska’s North Slope was denied by a federal judge Monday, preventing any development from starting in the immediate future.

The ruling by United States District Judge Sharon Gleason dismissed the lawsuit filed by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and the State of Alaska in November 2021 against the Biden administration, stating that no drilling for oil or gas can be done on land that was purchased in a lease sale earlier that year.

Congress authorized an oil and gas leasing program under the Trump administration in December 2017, leading to an Environmental Impact Statement review by the Bureau of Land Management in 2019.

AIDEA was one of three bidders that purchased land in the lease sale that occurred in January 2021, buying seven tracts of Coastal Plains land within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a hotly-contested chunk of federal land in northern Alaska.

Two weeks later, President Joe Biden was sworn in and immediately directed the Department of the Interior to conduct a supplemental environmental review that ultimately put a hold on drilling in the refuge in June of that year.

The Alaska agency claimed federal officials overstepped in suspending lease-related activities in a section of ANWR.

Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, wrote in a release that the lease sale in January 2021 failed to attract any major oil and gas companies, stating that it will not deliver the promised revenue while “sacrificing these sacred lands for mere pennies on the dollar.”

“AIDEA has an agenda to drill on lands sacred to our people and to promote a leasing program that threatens our way of life,” Demientieff said. “Today’s ruling comes as good news as we continue defending the Porcupine caribou herd and our traditional way of life from a destructive, disrespectful, needless and illegal leasing program. We will always protect these sacred lands that connect our people culturally and spiritually. We will always protect the caribou.”

The land that AIDEA wants to develop contains an estimated 7.6 million barrels of recoverable oil, according to the agency, and 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. AIDEA also said development of the area — which measures more than 571 square miles — would directly provide 1,430 jobs with an additional 6,350 jobs indirectly created.

The agency stated in a release that it is “disappointed” in the decision.

“Congress clearly said the Department of the Interior had to go forward with leasing in ANWR and expected DOI to allow those leases to produce jobs, oil, and revenue for the Treasury. Congress certainly expects the leasing entities to carry out its intent without having to expressly authorize every step in the leasing process,” Director of Communications and External Affairs Josie Wilson wrote. “The Department of Interior failed to specify what specific items were deficient in the determination.

“This lack of clarity will likely lead to an open ended and costly delay. This is another example of why comprehensive permit reform is needed. Agency decisions must be final at some point and not subject to politics and the whims of changing administrations.”

The Bureau of Land Management has said it plans to move forward with a new environmental review of leasing in the refuge.

Copyright 2023 KTUU. All rights reserved.