(CN) — A federal judge suspended the leasing of about a million acres for oil and gas development in Alaska, finding the Biden administration must first cure deficiencies in an environmental analysis to properly consider the development’s impacts on marine life.
U.S. Alaska District Judge Sharon Gleason ruled the government must show that it properly considered alternatives to reduce the potential environmental effects of a December 2022 lease of blocks of offshore tracts for oil and gas development in the Cook Inlet of Alaska.
It’s a victory for environmentalists like the Center for Biological Diversity and Natural Resources Defense Council, which filed the lawsuit with Earthjustice on behalf of Cook Inletkeeper, Kachemak Bay Conservation Society and Alaska Community Action on Toxics. The plaintiffs opposed the leasing of nearly a million acres of federal waters to the fossil fuel industry, and claimed that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management violated the National Environmental Policy Act and rejected alternatives to reduce environmental impacts on local fisheries and the Alaska Native communities.
They also claimed the bureau failed to consider the effects of the leases on Cook Inlet beluga whales — white, toothed whales which were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2008, whose numbers dwindle by 2.3% annually.
The Department of the Interior did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling. It canceled Lease Sale 258 in May 2022, but then announced it would move ahead after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
In her 49-page decision Tuesday, Gleason said that the government’s restrictive interpretation of current provisions in its environmental analysis violated federal law. Gleason said that the bureau’s reliance on the Inflation Reduction Act to warrant leasing nearly all of the inlet’s area for oil and gas development is at odds with the act’s terms.
Gleason cited the Ninth Circuit’s 2013 decision in Western Watersheds Project v. Abbey, where plaintiffs challenged the sufficiency of an environmental assessment prepared for the renewal of a 10-year grazing permit on federal land in Montana. In that case, the Ninth Circuit held that the Bureau of Land Management failed to consider reasonable alternatives as the record belied its rationale.
Gleason also found the defendants failed to properly consider the effects of underwater vessel noise on beluga whales in the inlet. She said the plaintiffs successfully showed the government’s cumulative impact analysis might have been different if it considered unique impacts on beluga whales. Beluga whales communicate via echolocation, using an organ on the skull to make sounds and then receiving sounds from other whales through canals in the lower jaw.
But Gleason also found the plaintiffs’ cited studies about cancer and congenital defects in whales failed to establish that water pollution undermined findings by government scientists that Cook Inlet water quality is suitable for marine life. She upheld the government’s decision to exclude sewage discharges, runoff from roads, airports and agricultural sites from its cumulative effects analysis.
She also sided with the government in finding its environmental analysis adequately considered the potential effects of a large oil spill on the region’s beluga whales.
Along with suspending the lease sale, Gleason remanded the government’s analysis without vacatur to allow the defendants to submit a supplemental draft to cure its deficiencies. They must also must file a status report every six months.
In a statement Wednesday, the Center for Biological Diversity said that the decision supports Alaska communities and threatened beluga whales. It said that since the start of 2024, Hilcorp has been the subject of four enforcement actions from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
“I hope this decision makes it clear to federal officials that they can’t keep ignoring the ways offshore drilling threatens these critically endangered whales,” Kristen Monsell, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said.
Loren Barrett, co-executive director at Cook Inletkeeper, added: “Our coastal communities have long resisted oil and gas leasing, understanding the irreversible impacts of industrial disasters and the need to preserve Cook Inlet’s habitat, fisheries, and natural beauty. By overturning Lease Sale 258, the court has recognized the critical importance of safeguarding Cook Inlet’s dynamic ecosystem, and an essential piece of habitat required to ensure the continued survival of the iconic Cook Inlet beluga whale.”