SC Alaska News

U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan, and Representative Nick Begich from Alaska have praised a recent ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. The court found that the Biden administration's 2023 cancellation of seven leases on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) was illegal. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), the leaseholder, challenged the cancellations in court and won.

Senator Murkowski remarked, “As we wrote the Coastal Plain program in 2017, we adopted a legal framework substantially similar to the one in place for the NPR-A. After the first Trump administration developed a good program and AIDEA secured seven leases, the Biden administration spent four years attempting to turn the program on its head. From their initial pause and then the cancelation of these leases, to the arbitrary closure of 74 percent of the program area and a lease sale that was designed to fail, I can’t think of a single lawful thing the last administration did on the Coastal Plain. While we lost years of development to their willful intransigence, this decision is an important step to getting things back on track. I appreciate Judge Gleason’s clear-eyed reading of the law we wrote and congratulate AIDEA on their victory. I hope their leases are immediately reinstated and thank them for persevering in their effort to help develop our state’s abundant resources for the benefit of all Alaskans."

Senator Sullivan expressed similar sentiments, adding, “I’ve said for years that not only were President Biden’s 70 executive orders and actions shutting down Alaska harmful to our state and working families, but many of them were also illegal. The District Court ruled yesterday that the administration’s cancellation of ANWR leases was a ‘serious’ error that violated ‘congressionally mandated procedures.’ That is an important rebuke, but I don’t believe that this was an honest mistake. President Biden’s lawyers likely knew this cancellation was illegal, but they did it anyway in order to have a chilling impact on future Coastal Plain lease sales and to kill hundreds, if not thousands of jobs for Alaskans. But it is a new day for our state. We now have an administration that is committed to unleashing our extraordinary resources, growing our economy and creating good-paying jobs for hardworking Alaskans.”

Congressman Begich also criticized the Biden administration's action, stating, “The Biden Administration’s illegal cancellation of leases in ANWR was a reckless act of overreach that hurt Alaska families and threatened America’s path to energy security. The law could not be more clear: the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed by Congress in 2017 and signed into law by President Trump mandates the responsible development of ANWR. This ruling brings us one step closer to restoring the promise of ANWR and putting Alaska back on the map as a cornerstone of America’s energy dominance."

In 2023, the Department of the Interior canceled all seven leases held by AIDEA. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled in favor of AIDEA, stating the cancellation was not legally compliant as it did not seek a court order. "Federal Defendants’ cancellation of AIDEA’s leases was not in accordance with law because it failed to seek a court order…The Court finds that vacatur is appropriate. DOI’s error is serious: DOI cancelled AIDEA’s leases without following the congressionally-mandated procedure for doing so… DOI’s Lease Cancellation Decision of AIDEA’s ANWR leases is VACATED," the judge wrote.

The case will now return to the Department of the Interior for further action.