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State challenges federal OCS lawsuit
Argues that case disputing opening of federal offshore Alaska region for oil and gas lease sales is invalid because no sales planned Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
In a Jan. 16 court filing the State of Alaska challenged a lawsuit in the federal District Court in Alaska that claims that President Trump's Jan. 20, 2025, executive order opening large areas of the federal outer continental shelf to oil and gas development, including areas of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, was illegal. A group of environmental organizations have claimed that the order violated both the U.S. constitution and federal statutes.
The state now argues that the case should be dismissed because 'the plaintiffs have not alleged imminent and particularized harm within the District of Alaska.'
Regardless of the executive order, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management cannot currently authorize any exploration or leasing activity on the Alaska outer continental shelf, because those areas are not included in the agency's National Outer Continental Shelf Plan, the state told the court. And the multi-year process involved in preparation of a new oil and gas leasing program shields the plaintiffs from any immediate harm, the state wrote.
Requires impending injury A legally tenable case requires the plaintiffs to allege impending injury, rather than make allegations of possible future injury, the state argues. The president's executive order 'caused no direct harm to plaintiffs,' the state wrote.
'No new exploration or leasing activity can occur in the Chukchi or Beaufort Seas until either BOEM finalizes the 11th National OCS Plan, or Congress takes further action, the outcome of which is neither guaranteed nor imminent,' the state wrote.
On May 1, 2025, BOEM opened a 45-day public comment period for the preparation of the agency's new outer continental shelf oil and gas leasing program. And on Nov. 24, 2025, the agency announced its first draft program, proposing lease sales in federal waters of the Beaufort Sea, the Chukchi Sea and the 'High Arctic,' among other regions of the OCS.
'While the outcome of this open, public and transparent planning process is far from certain, plaintiffs intend to derail it completely by challenging the executive orders that prompted it,' the state wrote. In doing this the plaintiffs are also seeking to quash the rights of the state, 'its elected leaders, its coastal communities and its residents' from providing input to BOEM regarding federal offshore development at specific locations and times, the state told the court.
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