Groups Challenge Arctic Refuge Leases and Drilling Plan

Groups Challenge Arctic Refuge Leases and Drilling Plan

Updated complaint restarts paused litigation to protect the 1.56 million-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas leasing

Contacts

Elizabeth Manning, Earthjustice, (907)277-2555, [email protected]

Andrew Scibetta, Natural Resources Defense Council, (202) 289-2421

Elizabeth Heyd, Natural Resources Defense Council, [email protected]

Natalie Jones, Center for Biological Diversity, [email protected]

Conservation groups today filed an amended and supplemented complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska challenging the Interior Department's latest push to open the entire 1.56-million-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas leasing. The filing renews and updates a 2020 lawsuit, adding new claims challenging Interior's October 2025 decision to again open the Coastal Plain to leasing.

By challenging Interior's decision, the groups also seek to overturn unlawful leases held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), a state-sponsored corporation, which Interior originally issued in 2021 and reinstated in October.

The amended complaint alleges violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, the Wilderness Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. NRDC and Earthjustice are cocounsel for plaintiffs NRDC, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Friends of the Earth.

"This attempt to lease the Arctic Refuge for oil and gas is reckless and unlawful," said Garett Rose, Senior Attorney at NRDC. "The Coastal Plain is the nursery of the Porcupine caribou herd, critical onshore denning habitat for threatened Southern Beaufort Sea polar bears, and sacred to the Gwich'in. Interior's bid to fast-track leasing on this landscape ignores the law, the science, and the weak market interest we've already seen. We're back in court to defend a place that should never be industrialized."

"The climate crisis is deepening, and Alaska is warming faster than the rest of the planet while this administration is sabotaging a livable future by backing out of vital international climate agreements and attempting to lock us into fossil fuel use," said Earthjustice Attorney Erik Grafe. "Allowing oil and gas drilling on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's Coastal Plain makes no legal, economic, or environmental sense. The U.S. must shift off fossil fuels, not pursue aggressive oil drilling that will destroy irreplaceable public lands, harm people who rely on them, and threaten species like the polar bear with near-term extinction."

"Without a doubt, new oil and gas leasing in the Refuge will harm and kill polar bears," said Hallie Templeton, Legal Director for Friends of the Earth. "These iconic, struggling animals will be frightened from their dens and their cubs will be killed. We sued the federal government because it approved another leasing program based on faulty assumptions that negate these harms, in blatant violation of the Endangered Species Act. Interior must seriously and accurately account for the risks that Big Oil poses to people and the planet, and until that happens, we will continue taking them to court." 

"Another fossil fuel extraction project is the last thing the Arctic and its beleaguered polar bears need," said Rebecca Noblin, Alaska senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Trump is greenlighting oil and gas projects that will change the Arctic Refuge and the climate forever, while illegally ignoring the harms polar bears and other animals will suffer. We're not going to let this administration sidestep the law and sacrifice our public lands without a fight."

Background

The Refuge's Coastal Plain-1.56 million acres of tundra, braided rivers, and wetlands-is the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge, providing essential habitat for polar bears, caribou, and millions of migratory birds. It is exceedingly sensitive to disturbance and slow to recover.

Earthjustice and NRDC, on behalf of the conservation groups, filed suit in 2020 challenging the prior attempt to lease the Coastal Plain. A lease auction was held on Jan. 6, 2021, and the Biden administration subsequently imposed a moratorium and review. The Biden administration then offered a smaller sale in 2025 that drew no bids.

In October 2025, Interior rescinded the Biden record of decision and readopted the earlier program that opens the entire Coastal Plain to leasing and moved to lift the suspension on AIDEA's leases-prompting today's amended complaint.

Additional Resources

• Related case documents & news
• About the Alaska Office

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