Sullivan bill would have Congress ratify ANWR Coastal Plain permits

Sen. Dan Sullivan has introduced a bill that would have Congress ratify the federal permits underlying oil and gas leasing on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain — a move that would largely put those permits beyond the reach of the courts.

That's the mechanism at work. When Congress ratifies an agency's permits by statute, the permits stop being agency decisions subject to challenge under environmental law and become acts of Congress. The technique has been used before to clear legal obstacles from stalled energy projects.

S. 5438 would ratify the biological opinions and incidental take statements issued for the leasing program — Endangered Species Act findings that authorize a project to harm protected wildlife. Those documents are among the things currently being contested in court.

The leasing program is under legal challenge. The Gwich'in Steering Committee is among the plaintiffs, arguing it threatens the calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd and the subsistence that depends on the herd. Kaktovik, the only community inside the refuge, has supported development on the coastal plain, where its Iñupiat corporation holds surface land.

The leasing program originated in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, was suspended in June 2021 for further environmental review, and was revived under the Interior secretary's record of decision last October. It now operates under a section of the 2025 budget reconciliation law. A lease sale in June drew bids on five tracts totaling 72,049 acres.

The bill went directly onto the Legislative Calendar. No committee action or vote has been scheduled.