In two separate rulings, federal judges have suspended oil and gas lease sales in Alaska and Wyoming pending comprehensive environmental reviews. These decisions highlight the ongoing legal and policy battles surrounding domestic energy production in the U.S.
### Alaska’s Cook Inlet Lease Sale
A federal judge in Alaska has indefinitely halted the sale of oil and gas leases in the Cook Inlet basin after discovering significant flaws in the environmental analysis that preceded it. The lease sale, initially approved by the Biden administration, faced opposition from environmental groups due to concerns about the inclusion of previously canceled oil and gas leases in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The court ruling, seen as a win for environmental advocates, found that the U.S. Government had breached the law in conducting the sale. The decision came on the heels of a new law aiming to make substantial and continuous investments in climate action, with the aim of reducing U.S. emissions by as much as 40% by 2030 and fostering the expansion of a clean energy sector.
The court’s scrutiny revealed shortcomings in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) evaluation of the impact of ship noise on Cook Inlet beluga whales, a protected species in the U.S. The agency was also criticized for insufficiently distinguishing between beluga whales and other marine mammals in its assessment, emphasizing the need to examine different species individually.
Despite opening nearly a million acres of Alaskan federal waters for potential oil and gas exploration, the court did not annul the sale entirely but rather put it on hold pending a more thorough environmental survey addressing the identified concerns.
### Wyoming’s Lease Sales
In a separate case, a federal judge in Wyoming prohibited the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from approving new oil and gas drilling permits on nearly 68,000 acres of federal lands until the agency conducts a supplemental environmental review. Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia gave BLM 180 days to complete this review.
The case dates to June 2022, when BLM’s Wyoming State Office finalized the lease sale. Environmental groups sued, challenging the BLM’s environmental review and the size of the lease sale. The sale received 81 bids on 122 parcels, totaling nearly $13 million.
Judge Cooper previously ruled that the Interior Department’s BLM failed to fully comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when assessing the environmental impact of drilling on the land and explaining its decision to authorize a lease sale of this magnitude