States withdraw from ANWR legal challenge

ALAN BAILEY

for Petroleum News

On Feb. 9 the plaintiffs in an Alaska District Court case in which 15 states had challenged the legality of plans to hold oil and gas lease sales in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge asked the court to terminate the case. On Dec. 17 of last year Judge Sharon Gleason had ordered the plaintiffs to file an amended complaint or, alternatively, to file a motion to dismiss their existing complaint. The plaintiffs chose to close the case by dismissing their complaint.

The case was one of four cases challenging the legality of the lease sale program. The other three cases were raised by environmental organizations, the Gwich'in Steering Committee and the tribal governments of three Native villages. These cases had been stayed by the court. But in all these cases the plaintiffs filed amended complaints in January, continuing to challenge the legality of the lease sale program.

As previously reported by Petroleum News, the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management recently sought comments and nominations of lands to be considered for leasing in the coastal plain. The Biden administration had placed significant restrictions on the land that could be offered for leasing. In October Interior issued a new record of decision, re-opening 1.56 million acres of the coastal plain to oil and gas leasing.

--ALAN BAILEY