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Environmental organizations file lawsuit over offshore openings
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
On Feb. 19 a group of environmental organizations filed a lawsuit in the federal District Court in Alaska challenging President Trump's Jan. 20 executive order opening large areas of the federal outer continental shelf to oil and gas development, including areas of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The organizations claim that the order violated both the U.S. constitution and federal statutes.
This issue has been contentious over the years, with environmental organizations arguing for a need for strong protection of the natural environment, especially in environmentally sensitive areas. Proponents of oil and gas development argue for the economic benefits of oil development and say that development can be carried out in an environmentally responsible manner.
In Alaska the federal waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas remain "essentially undeveloped" and are adjacent to sensitive federal land, the environmental organizations told the court. The offshore regions provide habitat to a rich array of unique wildlife species, some of which also support thriving indigenous Alaska Native cultural and subsistence activities, the environmental organizations wrote.
The organizations cited audio disturbance from offshore seismic surveying and the potential for offshore oil spills among the possible environmental impacts of offshore oil and gas activities.
An unconstitutional order? In challenging President Trump's order, the organizations argued that the property clause of the U.S. constitution gives Congress the power to "make all needful rules and regulations," and that the president only has the power to regulate property to the extent that Congress has delegated the relevant authority to the president. And, while the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that sets the rules for oil and gas leasing on the outer continental shelf authorizes the president to withdraw unleased offshore land from disposition, the act does not authorize a president to re-open land that has previously been withdrawn. Moreover, there is no other source of authority that permits a president to reverse a land withdrawal, the environmental organizations claim.
Thus, President Trump's order exceeds his authority under Article II of the U.S. Constitution while also intruding on Congress's exclusive power under the constitution, in violation of the doctrine of separation of power, the environmental organizations claim.
Lease sale programs The organizations told the court that in January 2017, prior to the start of President Trump's first term in office, the Department of the Interior finalized a five-year lease sale program that included 10 lease sales for the Gulf of Mexico and one for federal waters of the Cook Inlet. In January 2018 the Trump administration proposed a 2019-2024 lease sale program involving a total of 47 offshore lease sales, including six sales in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. However, this lease sale program was not finalized prior to the change over to the Biden administration in January 2021.
In December 2023 the Biden administration finalized a 2024 to 2029 lease sale program that only included three lease sales in the western and central Gulf of Mexico.
Presidential withdrawals In parallel with these lease sale decisions there has been a long history of presidential withdrawals by multiple presidents of certain areas of the OCS for lease sale activity, the environmental organizations told the court. In 1960, for example, President Eisenhower withdrew part of what is now the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary from oil and gas leasing.
More recently, in January 2015 President Obama permanently withdrew coastal areas of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas and the Hanna Shoal region of the Chukchi Sea from oil and gas leasing. In doing this, the president cited his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. Obama subsequently also withdrew areas of the northern Bering Sea, and additional portions of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
Challenge to the withdrawals In April 2017 President Trump issued a presidential order that purported to revoke President Obama's withdrawal of areas of the northern Bering Sea and purported to reverse President Obama's withdrawals in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, the environmental organizations wrote in their Feb. 19 court filing.
In May 2017 several environmental organizations filed an appeal in Alaska District Court against President Trump's order. And in March 2019 the court issued a decision, saying that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act did not authorize the president to revoke a previous land withdrawal. The federal defendants in the case and industry intervenors appealed the case to the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. However, after President Biden reinstated President Obama's offshore land withdrawals in January 2021, the 9th Circuit determined that the appeal case was moot. And in March 2023 President Biden withdrew remaining areas of the Beaufort Sea from oil and gas leasing.
In 2025 President Biden also withdrew from oil and gas leasing areas of the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern Gulf of Mexico -- there were subsequent lawsuits in federal courts challenging these withdrawals, the environmental organizations told the court in their Feb. 19 court filing.
That was followed by President Trump's Jan. 20, 2025, order opening much of the outer continental shelf to potential leasing.
--ALAN BAILEY
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