Lawsuit Fights Trump Administration Plan to Open 18 Million Acres of Western Arctic to Oil and Gas Drilling

The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in the Western Arctic supports unique wildlife habitat and is considered to be an area of global ecological significance. Anchorage, AK — Conservation groups today sued the Trump administration over its plan to allow oil and gas drilling on 18.7 million acres on the western side of America’s wild Arctic, known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (Reserve). The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) final “environmental impact statement” will likely open up about 82% of the Western Arctic to drilling, rolling back many of the key safeguards that are currently in place to protect its unique ecosystems and the people and cultures that depend on them. Earthjustice filed the lawsuit and is representing the National Audubon Society, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and Stand.earth. Read the legal document . The lawsuit is one of several recent legal challenges contesting the Trump administration’s aggressive push to vastly increase oil and gas leasing, exploration, and development across America’s Arctic. The proposed land-management plan is a dramatic reversal of course from the current Integrated Activity Plan (IAP), carving 7 million acres from protected status, thereby threatening important subsistence use areas as well as essential habitats for […]

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