Parnell seeking ANWR judgment

Move continues administration’s aggressive push to open the coastal plain for exploration work and future drilling

Eric Lidji

For Petroleum News

The state of Alaska is seeking a summary judgment in its efforts to conduct a 3-D seismic campaign in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

In a Sept. 8 motion, the state argued that federal statute is “plain and unambiguous” in allowing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider the exploration program. With a favorable judgment, the state could pursue its exploration program without a trial.

The move continues Gov. Sean Parnell’s aggressive approach to open the protected eastern North Slope region to oil and gas exploration and potentially development.

“The state must pursue litigation with Washington to explore ANWR because the information that will be gained from our plan is invaluable to both Alaska and the United States as a whole,” Parnell said in a statement. “Our legal position is strong, and the national interest is best served by understanding what hydrocarbon resources underlie the coastal plain, and how they could support our economic and energy security. We will not give the federal government a free pass to choke Alaska’s economic development.”

After decades where Alaska policymakers primarily used lobbying and legislation to persuade federal officials to allow development activities in ANWR, the Parnell administration took a different approach in May 2013 by proposing a state and federally funded exploration program to better understand the oil and gas resources in the region.

The last exploration program in the region was in the 1980s.

When the Obama administration rejected the idea, the Parnell administration applied for a special use permit to pursue a scaled down version of the proposal on its own. The proposal called for a three-year 3-D seismic program along the coastal region of ANWR.

But this time the federal government said it lacked the authority to approve the plan.

In March 2014, the Parnell administration sued U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and other government officials, saying they violated the law by rejecting the proposal.

While the tactics may have changed, the central issue remains the same: what the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 allows in the way of development.

The law undeniably barred development on certain lands in the state. But proponents of development, including the state of Alaska, believe that Section 1002 of the law permits activities within “the coastal plain” of the 19.2 million-acre refuge while opponents of development, including the federal government, believe that such authority has expired.