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New Chukchi lawsuit schedule proposed
The plaintiffs and defendants in an appeal in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska against the February 2008 Chukchi Sea outer continental shelf oil and gas lease sale have filed a proposed new briefing schedule for the lawsuit. As reported in the Dec. 27 issue of Petroleum News, the participants in the lawsuit agreed to set a new schedule, following plaintiff concerns that, with MMS having conditionally approved Shell’s 2010 Chukchi Sea drilling plan, the Chukchi Sea drilling may proceed before the appeal in district court is resolved. Shell’s planned drilling would occur in leases that the company obtained in the 2008 lease sale.
The briefing schedule has been on hold since March pending the issuance by the U.S. Minerals Management Service of an amended lease sale environmental assessment, required by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in connection with a ruling by that court in an appeal against the MMS 2007 to 2012 outer continental shelf lease sale program.
First brief by Feb. 1 The proposed new schedule requires the U.S. Department of the Interior to file a summary judgment brief by Feb. 1, with Shell, ConocoPhillips and the State of Alaska, interveners in the case, to file their summary judgment briefs by Feb. 16. The Native Village of Point Hope, the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope and 12 environmental organizations, the plaintiffs in the case, must respond with a reply brief by March 8.
The plaintiffs originally filed their appeal against the Chukchi Sea lease sale shortly before the lease sale took place, and at that time the plaintiffs asked the court to rescind any leases issued from the sale, saying that the lease sale would violate both the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.
—Alan Bailey
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