A nonprofit representing Alaska’s North Slope Iñupiat is suing the Interior Department over its new rule establishing stronger environmental protections in more than half of the 23 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve.
The Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat — whose members include Alaska Native corporations and federally recognized tribes and tribal nonprofits in Alaska — said in its complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska that Interior’s Bureau of Land Management “failed to engage meaningfully” with the people who live on the North Slope.
“Our complaint speaks for the North Slope Iñupiat’s voices whom the federal government has chosen to silence, stonewall and scorn since it blindsided us with its unilateral mandates in September 2023,” said Nagruk Harcharek, president of the group.
“It is unfortunate that we have been forced to turn to the courts for resolution on this seriously flawed rule and the process that produced it,” Harcharek continued. “If the administration would have meaningfully engaged with the North Slope Iñupiat, we would likely not be in this position today.”
