Environmentalists and an Alaskan Native group sued the Interior Department last week over its efforts to expand oil and gas production on Alaska’s North Slope, posing another court challenge as the Trump administration seeks to hold an auction in the coming weeks.
The coalition filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska asking to invalidate Interior’s management plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska — and any future lease sales.
The lawsuit was the third in recent days aimed at stopping the expansion of oil and gas activities in the NPR-A and accusing the administration of violating federal laws by not conducting new environmental analyses. The administration has scheduled a lease sale in the NPR-A on March 18.
“This plan asks our homelands to give more than they can bear,” said Nauri Simmonds, executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, in a statement. “We stand in this moment with love for our homelands and with a vision for a future where decisions are made with humility, restraint, and respect for the land’s limits.”
