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Vol. 28, No.14 Week of April 02, 2023
Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry

AIDEA, state respond on ANWR, say activities moratorium illegal

Alan Bailey

for Petroleum News

In a federal District Court case in which the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is challenging the Department of the Interior’s moratorium on oil and gas lease related activities in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, AIDEA, the state of Alaska and other plaintiffs have responded to a court filing by the Biden administration.

The court case relates to the first lease sale for the coastal plain, held in January 2021 by the Bureau of Land Management. AIDEA, Knik Arm Services LLC and Regenerate Alaska purchased leases in the sale. The lease sale had been required under the terms of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed by Congress in 2017.

EIS rework

However, shortly after the lease sale President Biden issued an executive order saying that the environmental impact statement for the sale was deficient and required a rework, with DOI having to order a suspension of all lease sale related activities until there is a record of decision for the revised EIS. The Bureau of Land Management anticipated publishing the supplementary EIS in April 2023, with a record of decision following in June 2023. However, the agency later indicated that there would be delays in the completion of the SEIS.

Knik Arm Services and Regenerate Alaska subsequently surrendered their leases, while in November 2021 AIDEA filed a legal complaint in District Court over the DOI action. As previously reported by Petroleum News, in December 2022 AIDEA and other plaintiffs in the case filed requests for a summary judgement against the Biden administration. The Biden administration responded, arguing that, in holding the 2021 lease sale, the federal administration had complied with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and that frustration with delays in being able to conduct lease related activities does not override the necessity to conduct required environmental analysis.

Illegal executive order?

AIDEA, the North Slope Borough, Arctic Slope Regional Corp. and Kaktovik Inupiat Corp. have now filed a brief arguing that their complaint against the federal administration does not challenge the speed of administration actions relating to the ANWR leases. Rather the complaint asserts that Biden’s executive order was illegal in that it was not supported by any constitutional or statutory authority. In addition, the lease activity moratorium violates the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the Administrative Procedures Act, the plaintiffs argue.

The state of Alaska, in its court brief, says that the moratorium on lease related activities, in effect, rejects, suspends and rescinds the record of decision approving the lease sale program, without any statutory basis for overturning the record of decision in this manner. Moreover, the DOI does not have the authority to cancel leases because of a deficient analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, and the preparation of a supplementary EIS does not compel the implementation of a lease activity moratorium, the state argued.

- ALAN BAILEY



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