By John Haughey via the Epoch Times,
The state of Alaska is suing the federal government over an alleged “illegal detour” by the Department of the Interior (DOI) by limiting oil and gas lease auctions to about 400,000 acres at the 19.6 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Alaska’s attorney general, Treg Taylor, filed a lawsuit on Jan. 7, awaiting the DOI’s Jan. 8 announcement that the Bureau of Land Management had received “no interest” from oil companies in offering leases on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Alaska claims that by limiting leases to 400,000 acres, the administration violated the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which required DOI to conduct two lease auctions under Section 1002 — a width of 1.5 million acres that Congress opened in 1980 for potential oil and gas development.
The state claims DOI essentially sabotaged the offer by imposing “new strict restrictions on surface use and occupancy” in November, which made “any development economically and virtually impossible” when it was implemented in December when the lease auction opened. When the auction ended on January 6, no bids were submitted.
Taylor argued in a statement filed in the U.S. District Court in Anchorage declaring the lawsuit that the agencies “ignored the law and made an illegal detour of it without even presenting their final decision to the public for comment.”
The Jan. 8 litigation follows Alaska’s July 2, 2024 lawsuit over what he said was “billions in lost revenue” from nine cancelled federal oil and gas leases on the coastal plain of ANWR. This action is pending.
In 2023, DOI suspended already issued Section 1002 leases, citing inadequate legal analysis and commissioning another study to reevaluate the potential environmental impacts of ANWR’s oil and gas leasing program.
The expired Jan. 6 bidding deadline ended a second-Congress-mandated sale required by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which directed the Bureau of Land Management to conduct two lease sales within seven years of taking effect.
The first sale, which took place during the Trump administration, “showed similarly low interest, giving a total of $14.4 million in high bids for 11 tracts,” the DOI said, noting that Congress grossly overestimated revenues from the two leases, predicting that they would make about $2 billion over 10 years.
Alaskan officials said they were concerned that “last-minute measures to limit and complicate oil and gas development” under Section 1002 of the ANWR rejected the offer.
John Boyle, commissioner for the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, said the November restrictions had created “complete dysfunction.”
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said, “Interior’s continued and irrational opposition to responsible energy development in the Arctic during the Biden administration continues to push America on the path of energy dependency instead of using the vast resources at our disposal.”
In December, the Republican governor called on President-elect Donald Trump to ease existing restrictions and set up a cabinet-level task force specifically to deal with Alaska’s oil and gas development.
Trump has vowed to lift the ANWR restrictions by executive order of “Day One.” Dunleavy said the lawsuit is still necessary.
“We’ve already heard comments from the president-elect that his administration is thankfully taking a different direction and opening up those areas that are meant to be developed,” he said. “But unfortunately, we can’t wait for that – we have to challenge this illegal activity now.”
