Interior tells judge it's reviewing at least one application for ANWR winter work

The Interior Department is reviewing at least one application for on-the-ground work on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain this winter, federal lawyers told U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason in a status report filed Oct. 27.

The report doesn't name the applicant, the activity or where it would happen.

Gleason said in May she would try to rule on the coastal plain leasing program by Nov. 20 "unless Defendants provide notice that no on-the-ground activities are planned." The report gives no such notice, and no later order has changed the target.

She heard arguments Oct. 29 in lawsuits seeking to throw out the program and the leases sold under it. She ordered that the court be notified within two business days of any decision granting an application.

Interior argues that its 2025 leasing decision "does not authorize disturbance of a single acre" and that surface work needs separate decisions on specific proposals. If Gleason finds error, she wrote in May, whether to void AIDEA's leases would be briefed separately.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the state development corporation, is the lease holder on record with seismic plans. Seismic surveys map potential oil and gas deposits underground. Its board authorized up to $175 million in May for permitting and "low-impact 3D seismic," excluding drilling. AIDEA's August minutes summarize Executive Director Randy Ruaro as saying "the seismic efforts are advancing, and the expectation is that crews will be in the field shortly."

AIDEA isn't the only lease holder. It won three tracts for about $1.6 million in the June 5 sale, and Hex Energy LLC was the high bidder on two. The report doesn't say whether the work under review is seismic.

The Gwich'in Steering Committee and allied groups, the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, and the Natural Resources Defense Council and others brought the three lawsuits. The Gwich'in plaintiffs argue in their opening brief that Interior put oil and gas ahead of the conservation and subsistence purposes in refuge law. The Gwich'in rely on the Porcupine caribou herd, which they say depends on the coastal plain for calving.

The Native Village of Kaktovik and the Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation joined the case on the government's side, along with the North Slope Borough, the state, AIDEA and industry groups. Kaktovik is the only community inside the refuge, and its village corporation owns 92,000 acres on the coastal plain. The city's and tribe's leaders want oil and gas development there and say people who live inside the refuge should be in the room when decisions about it get made.

The Bureau of Land Management and refuge managers haven't said publicly what's under review or whether the public may comment. AIDEA's board meets Wednesday with ANWR listed among its executive session topics.