Two lawsuits challenge planned NPR-A oil and gas lease sales
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ALAN BAILEY for Petroleum News`
Two recently filed lawsuits are challenging the Bureau of Land Management- s plans to hold oil and gas lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. One of the lawsuits, filed on Feb. 16 in the federal District Court for Alaska, challenges the validity of the latest NPR-A Integrated Activity Plan, the plan that determines key parameters under which the lease sales would be held. The other case, filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia on Feb. 17, challenges the legal validity of the upcoming NPR-A lease sale and particularly focuses on the need for adequate protection of the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, an area of high environmental sensitivity. This case has been transferred to the Alaska District Court.
On Feb. 20 the plaintiffs in the latter case asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction, banning the leasing of tracts within the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area until the court case is settled. An upcoming lease sale is scheduled for March 18.
Reversion to a previous IAP The court case challenging the NPR-A IAP was filed by seven environmental organizations and revolves around a decision by the Bureau of Land Management in 2025 to revert the IAP to a version approved in 2020 by the then Trump administration. In 2022, under the Biden administration, BLM reverted to an earlier version of the IAP which significantly reduced the area of land available for leasing, in particular to protect environmentally sensitive areas such as the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area.
The plaintiffs in the case argue that in re-instating the 2020 version of the IAP BLM has - failed to comply with multiple statutes and regulations that impose important protections for the reserve.- The new IAP violates the National Petroleum Reserves Production Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act, the plaintiffs claim. And the plaintiffs in their court filing cited the importance of the rich habitat in the reserve for caribou, grizzly bears, polar bears, wolves and many migratory birds and waterfowl.
The Teshekpuk Lake Special Area Of particular importance are designated special areas, including the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, which provides vital nesting habitat for thousands of migratory birds and is the primary calving area for the Teshekpuk Lake Caribou Herd, the plaintiffs wrote.
Also, in making its 2025 decision to re-instate the earlier version of the IAP, BLM did not analyze or consider the impact of oil and gas operations on subsistence activities by local communities, the court filing says. Nor did the agency hold any meetings with the communities, the plaintiffs told the court.
Challenge to the lease sale The lawsuit challenging the upcoming NPR-A lease sale was raised by Grandmothers Growing Goodness and environmental organization The Wilderness Society. Grandmothers Growing Goodness is a private not-for-profit organization based in the village of Nuiqsut on the eastern edge of the NPR-A. The lawsuit particularly focuses on the environmental protection of the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area and on concerns about the potential impacts of oil and gas activities on subsistence resources that Nuiqsut villagers depend on.
BLM- s Feb. 11 notice of a planned NPR-A lease sale offered more than 600 tracts - including core areas of the TLSA that have never been offered for lease and have been closed to leasing for most of the last four decades,- the court filing says. The lease sale decision never evaluated whether maximum protection of the TLSA required withholding specific lands or imposing protections beyond general stipulations in the 2020 IAP. And the lease sale opens the possibility of seismic activity and drilling in areas that overlap with caribou calving grounds; summer and winter range; and migration corridors, the filing said.
The filing also cites evidence from elsewhere on the North Slope that caribou tend to move away from areas impacted by oil and gas activities.
The necessity of environmental protection And the 2022 IAP for NPR-A had determined that it was necessary to protect land that is most heavily used by caving caribou and molting geese from the impacts of leasing and new infrastructure, the filing says. While the National Petroleum Reserves Production Act, the statute establishing the NPR-A, does mandate the need to conduct an oil and gas leasing, exploration and development program in the reserve, the act also requires activities in special areas to be conducted in a manner that assures the maximum protection of surface values, consistent with the requirements of the act for exploration of the reserve, the filing says.
Moreover, while BLM has claimed that the potential environmental impacts from the planned lease sale would be no different from what was envisaged in 2020, the new IAP actually increases the area available for leasing by 6.8 million acres, including more land in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, the filing says.
The filing also references BLM- s recent cancellation of a Nuiqsut right of way that had been designed for the protection of some Teshekpuk Lake Special Area land from the impacts of the Willow oilfield development.
BLM is now offering for lease the very lands it committed to protect,- the filing says. -ALAN BAILEY
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