Environmental Groups, Gwich’in Committee Ask Court to Revive ANWR Lease Lawsuits

Environmental organizations and the Gwich’in Steering Committee asked the U.S. District Court in Anchorage on Jan. 25, 2026 to reactivate litigation that challenges oil and gas leasing on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain. The filing seeks to revive lawsuits paused after initial challenges in 2020 and aims to block a leasing program plaintiffs call unlawful and harmful to Indigenous subsistence and wildlife.

The plaintiffs include the Gwich’in Steering Committee and a coalition of conservation groups represented by Trustees for Alaska. The coalition’s roster names Gwich’in Steering Committee, Alaska Wilderness League, Alaska Wildlife Alliance, Canadian Parks & Wilderness Society-Yukon, Defenders of Wildlife, Environment America, Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges, National Wildlife Federation, National Wildlife Refuge Association, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society and Wilderness Watch. The State of Alaska and North Slope Borough have intervened in the case in support of the administration’s leasing program, putting local government squarely on the defensive side of the dispute.

Plaintiffs contend the leasing program violates multiple laws, including the Endangered Species Act, and that it will worsen climate change and harm polar bears, caribou and Indigenous ways of life. Kristen Moreland, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, said, "It is unconscionable that this administration is advancing an Arctic Refuge leasing plan, which is opposed by the majority of Americans, would violate our rights as Alaska Native people, and blatantly contains multiple legal deficiencies." Bernardette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, framed the renewed legal push as an intensification of a long fight: "This fight is not over. For the Gwich’in, it has just begun, on a whole new level."

The contested area spans roughly 1.5 to 1.6 million acres of coastal plain, figures vary by reporting, and the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act directed the Interior Department to hold at least two lease sales of at least 400,000 acres each. The Trump administration held a lease sale on Jan. 6, 2021 and issued leases to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. Interior finalized a 2024 plan offering fewer acres for lease and held a January 2025 sale that drew no bids, while plaintiffs say recent agency actions effectively readopted and reinstated prior leasing decisions.

For North Slope Borough residents, the litigation weighs competing stakes: potential revenue and jobs tied to development versus the Porcupine caribou herd’s calving grounds, subsistence harvests, and cultural survival for Gwich’in communities across Alaska and Canada. Jessica Girard of Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition captured political fallout in Alaska, saying, "I think we saw a spike in support for the refuge, specifically here in Alaska, when people began to realize that Murkowski did sell out her health-care vote simply to get her pet project, which is the Arctic refuge."

What happens next is procedural and consequential. The court must decide whether to reactivate paused dockets and set a schedule for renewed briefing. Federal law also places timing constraints on when a lease sale must occur, a factor plaintiffs highlighted. For residents of the North Slope Borough, the outcome will shape not only local economic debates but the future of a landscape central to subsistence lifeways and transboundary Indigenous stewardship.