Federal judge to hear bid Thursday to cancel Arctic Refuge oil leases and leasing plans

U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason will hear arguments at 1 pm Thursday in Anchorage in three lawsuits that ask her to throw out federal oil and gas leasing decisions for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's Coastal Plain and the leases issued under them.

The Gwich'in Steering Committee, the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government and a group led by the Natural Resources Defense Council brought the cases.

The plaintiffs want the court to void the Interior Department's 2020 and 2025 leasing decisions, along with their biological opinions and subsistence evaluations, and cancel the 2021 leases and any leases issued in 2026.

Gleason said in a May 15 order that the court will try to rule by Nov. 20 unless the government reports that no on-the-ground activity is planned for the 2026-27 winter season. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) fought that schedule, according to an NRDC plaintiffs' filing. It asked for a longer schedule and wanted remedies briefed separately. The federal government and the American Petroleum Institute did not oppose the schedule.

On Oct. 22 the plaintiffs asked the government and AIDEA to update the court on winter exploration permitting. A status report was filed Oct. 27, but the filings available do not show whether winter work is planned.

In July, AIDEA's board authorized up to $190 million beyond previously authorized amounts for seismic exploration, permitting, regulatory work, cultural and wildlife studies, and stakeholder engagement on its Arctic Refuge leases.

Congress ordered the Coastal Plain lease program in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Interior adopted a leasing program in 2020, issued leases in 2021 and revised the program in 2024. According to the Gwich'in plaintiffs, it readopted the 2020 version in 2025 without new environmental review. A 2026 lease sale that opened bids June 5 drew nine bids on five tracts totaling 72,049 acres.

The Gwich'in plaintiffs argue Interior failed to meet the refuge's legal purposes and misread the law's 2,000-acre limit on surface development. They say it violated subsistence protections in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act by studying only four communities when its own 2024 analysis named 22 with subsistence ties to the area. They also say its polar bear findings broke the Endangered Species Act, and argue that voiding the leases "would not cause any harm to the Coastal Plain."

The federal government filed its own request in July asking the judge to rule in its favor, and AIDEA filed a similar one.

Each side gets up to an hour. Plaintiffs' attorneys will argue in this order: Mitchell Forbes of the Native American Rights Fund for the Venetie Tribal Government, the Arctic Village Council and the Venetie Village Council; Brook Brisson of Trustees for Alaska for the Gwich'in Steering Committee; and Hannah Payne Foster of Earthjustice for NRDC and allied groups.

AIDEA's seven 2021 leases are handled separately. Interior suspended them under President Biden, then affirmed them without changes in its 2025 decision. If the court finds the government erred and the plaintiffs want those leases canceled too, that question will be briefed after the ruling.