Interior expects decision about Arctic refuge leasing after July 1, court document says

A Biden administration decision about how the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil development program should proceed is expected in the third quarter of this year, a bit later than previously anticipated, according to a document filed in federal court on Friday.

The status report was filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage by the U.S. Justice Department on behalf of the Department of the Interior and its leader, Secretary Deb Haaland. It said a final supplemental environmental impact statement on refuge oil leasing is expected to be released in the second quarter of the year. A record of decision to follow is expected in the third quarter, the status report said.

The status report was filed in an active lawsuit launched in 2020 by three Gwich’in tribal governments in Alaska. That lawsuit seeks to overturn a decision by former President Donald Trump’s administration to sell leases in the refuge’s coastal plain. The decision to allow oil exploration there, the complaint said, violates cultural and traditional rights in an area that the Indigenous Gwich’in call Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit, meaning “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins,” because of its importance to the Porcupine Caribou Herd that ranges between northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada.

The supplemental environmental study process started in 2021, a few months after the Biden administration took office. Interior started it after determining that presale study used by the Trump administration was indeed deficient in ways cited by the Gwich’in tribal plaintiffs. A draft supplemental study was released in September 2023.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2024/04/02/interior-expects-decision-about-arctic-refuge-leasing-after-july-1-court-document-says/