Arctic refuge oil exploration could begin as soon as this winter, court documents indicate
Cottongrass wafts over the tundra in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Sept. 2, 2006. (Photo by Steve Hillebrand/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
Alaska's state-owned investment bank could get permission to start oil exploration work in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as soon as the third quarter of this year, according to court documents filed Friday in Anchorage.
In a status report on a series of lawsuits seeking to block oil development in the refuge, attorneys representing the U.S. Department of the Interior say the agency intends to issue a new document known as a 'record of decision' that would cover oil and gas leases sold by the agency in 2020.
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the state's publicly owned investment bank, was the leading bidder on several oil and gas tracts during that 2020 lease sale.
The Biden administration suspended, then canceled the results of that sale, held in the last days of the first Trump administration, but a U.S. District Court judge overturned that cancellation.
The leases remain suspended, but the status report — and a second one filed by AIDEA attorneys — shows the second Trump administration planning to reverse that suspension and reinstate the leases.
'Federal Defendants indicate that they are considering lifting the suspension, which could result in activities taking place pursuant to the leases in the near future,' wrote attorneys representing the plaintiffs, several environmental and Alaska Native groups that have filed suit to block development. 'Given the President's and Secretary's direction concerning resource development on the Coastal Plain, lifting the suspension is likely.'
That would clear a path for AIDEA to begin seismic testing and other work necessary before oil drilling.
On Alaska's North Slope, most exploration activities take place in winter, when the region's tundra is frozen and travel is easier. Federal action by this fall could permit work in the winter of 2025-2026.
Attorneys for the federal government and AIDEA have asked the U.S. District Court to place a hold legal on proceedings through Sept. 30.
Plaintiffs, meanwhile, are asking for a prompt trial, where they will attempt to prove that the federal government acted incorrectly by opening the refuge to oil and gas leasing in 2020.
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