Cases

Covering 23.5 million acres of the fragile western Arctic, the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska provides an important haven for America's wildlife. This vast area consists of varied ecosystems and habitats, from coastal lagoons to Arctic tundra and rugged mountains, supporting large populations of caribou, bears, wolves, fish, and migratory birds.

In 1998, then Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt authorized oil and gas leasing of 3.9 million acres of these wildlands in the northeastern portion of the reserve, including in key wildlife habitat areas, such as a portion of the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area and the Colville River corridor. Both these areas provide essential nesting, feeding, and molting habitat for significant populations of waterfowl, including the threatened spectacled and Steller's eiders, Pacific black brant, and yellow-billed loons. The Colville River corridor also supports high-density nesting populations of raptors, including gyrfalcons, Arctic peregrine, and rough-legged falcons, as well as moose, brown bears, and over 20 species of fish. The Teshekpuk Lake wetlands complex encompasses the major calving grounds for the 45,000-animal Teshekpuk caribou herd, an important cultural and subsistence resource for local natives.

Earthjustice, representing eight different Alaska and national conservation groups -- The Wilderness Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Alaska Wilderness League, Alaska Center for the Environment, and Northern Alaska Environmental Center -- sued the Department of the Interior to challenge this decision. This suit challenges the department's legal authority to issue leases in the northeastern portion of the reserve, and its failure to prepare an adequate environmental impact statement evaluating the impacts of the leases on the sensitive wildlife, key habitats, and wilderness values of this region. We are awaiting a final decision on the case from the federal district court in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Land Management has taken several actions that are of concern to Earthjustice and its clients.

First, it has held two lease sales in the Northeast Planning Area, in 1999 and 2002, and has also approved multiple winter-exploration drilling programs under which the oil companies are authorized to conduct various exploratory activities. These activities have gradually spanned across the entire Northeast Planning Area, including into the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area.

Second, in January 2004, the Department of the Interior opened the neighboring 8.8–million-acre northwest portion of the reserve to oil leasing. Earthjustice challenged this decision in a separate case. 

Third, in November 2004, the Bureau of Land Management published a Record of Decision authorizing the Alpine Satellite Development Plan. This plan involves a section of the Northeast Planning Area and would allow the first-ever permanent industrial oil development within the reserve. 

Fourth, in January 2006, the Secretary of the Interior amended the 1998 Babbitt decision by opening all of the previously-protected area around Teshekpuk Lake to oil and gas leasing and otherwise weakening protections throughout the Northeast Planning Area. Earthjustice and its clients successfully challenged this decision in a separate lawsuit.