Two lawsuits challenge Trump administration’s plans for oil drilling in Alaska petroleum reserve
- Alaska Beacon
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
By James Brooks
Alaska Beacon
A newly filed lawsuit and a revived six-year-old case from environmental groups and an Alaska Native organization are challenging the Trump administration’s proposal to open more parts of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil and gas drilling.
On Tuesday, Grandmothers Growing Goodness and The Wilderness Society filed suit against the U.S. Department of the Interior, alleging that the department’s development plan for the reserve violates proper procedure and federal law.
That suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Thousands of miles away, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth updated a six-year-old challenge dating from the first Trump administration.
Despite the difference in time and distance, both lawsuits are seeking the same goal: A stop to new plans for oil and gas drilling in the reserve.
The Audubon Society, which had been participating in the older lawsuit, withdrew from the case shortly before the new complaint was filed.
It isn’t yet clear whether the lawsuits will deter a planned oil and gas lease sale scheduled to take place next month.
That sale, which will open up to 5.5 million acres of North Slope land to oil and gas drilling, would be the first in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska since 2019.
The reserve, located to the west of Prudhoe Bay, has been eyed for possible development for decades, and — unlike the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the east of Prudhoe Bay — has been the subject of interest by major drillers.
The sale is one of five mandated in the next 10 years by the budget and policy legislation known as the “Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
During the first Trump administration and again this year, the federal government attempted to lease parts of the reserve that are near Teshekpuk Lake, an area that had been protected under previous agreements with local residents.
The lake is the largest on the North Slope and is considered important habitat for caribou and migrating birds.
Since taking office earlier this year, Trump has emphasized his desire for increased oil production from the North Slope and other federal land nationwide, part of a strategy intended to wean America off imported oil.
If a lease sale takes place in the reserve, exploratory drilling would likely take years, and production would take years more.
Oil company ConocoPhillips acquired some NPR-A leases in 1999; its Willow Project, located in the reserve, is expected to reach full production by the end of this decade.
• James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
