Two Federal Lawsuits Challenge Planned NPR-A Oil and Gas Lease Sales

Federal courts in Alaska and Washington, D.C. are weighing two separate lawsuits that aim to halt a Bureau of Land Management lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, with environmental groups and an Iñupiat advocacy organization arguing the agency's planning documents are legally indefensible.

Earthjustice filed the Alaska complaint on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, updating a six-year-old challenge that traces back to the first Trump administration. Simultaneously, The Wilderness Society and Grandmothers Growing Goodness, a group organized to highlight oil and gas development's effects on Iñupiat communities, filed a separate suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging the Interior Department's development plan for the reserve violates proper procedure and federal law.

Both lawsuits name the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, and top agency officials as defendants. The Earthjustice complaint additionally includes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Plaintiffs in both cases are asking a judge to invalidate any leases issued in the upcoming sale and to block future NPR-A lease sales, arguing the agencies relied on flawed environmental reviews and land management plans.

The sale targeted by the lawsuits, scheduled for March 18, would open up to 5.5 million acres of North Slope land to oil and gas drilling — the largest lease offering in the reserve since 2019. It would also be the first sale mandated under legislation Congress passed last year requiring at least five NPR-A lease sales over the next decade, a measure known as the "Big Beautiful Bill Act."

The complaints specifically cite Teshekpuk Lake, the largest lake in Alaska's arctic region, and the Colville River and its associated wetlands, which provide nesting habitat for raptors and support subsistence activities for North Slope residents. The reserve itself covers an area roughly the size of Indiana, sheltering caribou, bears, wolves, and millions of migratory birds. The Teshekpuk Caribou Herd ranges through the northeastern portion of the reserve, an area the federal government has attempted to lease in both the current and previous Trump administration, despite prior protections negotiated with local residents.

The Audubon Society had been party to the older Alaska lawsuit but withdrew shortly before the updated complaint was filed.

ConocoPhillips, which acquired NPR-A leases in 1999, is already operating in the reserve through its Willow Project, which is expected to reach full production by the end of this decade. If the March 18 sale proceeds despite the litigation, exploratory drilling from any new leases would still take years, with commercial production further out still.

Whether the lawsuits will delay the sale remains an open question. No preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order had been publicly reported in the supplied filings, and an Interior Department spokesperson had not responded to a request for comment as of the time the lawsuits were reported.