ANWR appeal dismissed following recent issue of lease sale SEIS

Alan Bailey

for Petroleum News

On Jan. 24, following a request by plaintiffs in the case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit dismissed an appeal by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the North Slope Borough and Kaktovik Inupiat Corp. against the June 2021 suspension of oil and gas lease related activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Department of the Interior had ordered the suspension of activities while the agency prepared a supplementary environmental impact statement for the ANWR lease sale program.

In November 2021 AIDEA and the other plaintiffs launched an appeal in Alaska District Court, challenging the lease related activity suspensions. In August 2023 the District Court rejected the appeal. Subsequently, in April 2024 the plaintiffs appealed the case to the 9th Circuit. However, on Jan. 20 the plaintiffs asked the 9th Circuit court to dismiss the case, arguing that the case was moot because in December DOI had issued a record of decision for its ANWR lease sale SEIS. The court agreed with the plaintiffs' argument and dismissed the case.

The completion of the SEIS was followed by an ANWR lease sale on Jan. 10.

The plaintiffs told the 9th Circuit court that, in issuing the SEIS record of decision, DOI had indicated that it had fixed the errors in the original EIS and, so, lifted the lease related activity moratorium.

"In the ROD, defendant-appellee DOI established new terms and conditions for the (lease sale) program and lifted the moratorium that halted any program actions for the duration of this supplemental environmental review. Consequently, the ROD also rendered moot plaintiffs' claims in this appeal, which challenged DOI's halt on program activities ... during the duration of the supplemental review," the plaintiffs told the court.

In a separate case AIDEA has appealed in the Alaska District Court the cancellation by the Bureau of Land Management of leases that AIDEA had obtained in the ANWR lease sale held in January 2021. The District Court has yet to issue a decision in that case. Prior to this year's lease sale AIDEA had asked the court to issue an injunction, preventing an entity from leasing land leased to AIDEA in the 2021 lease sale. However, since no one bid for leases in this year's lease sale, the potential for duplicate leasing became moot.

--ALAN BAILEY