Justice Department settles Alaska lawsuits over Arctic refuge oil leasing program

The Justice Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division has filed a stipulation dismissing lawsuits brought by the State of Alaska and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, resolving their challenges to the 2024 Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program, the department announced.

The lawsuits stemmed from restrictions the 2024 program placed on development, which plaintiffs argued undercut Congress’s directive that the Interior Department establish and administer a competitive oil and gas leasing program in the refuge’s Coastal Plain region, according to the Justice Department.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Biden-era leasing program violated the law and improperly constrained Alaska’s energy potential through unreasonable regulation, adding that the settlement supports the Trump administration’s commitment to American energy independence and national security.

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said the settlement establishes the Justice Department’s position that the 2024 restrictions were overly limiting and contrary to Congress’s directive to create a competitive oil and gas leasing program in Alaska’s Coastal Plain. He said the settlement corrects what he characterized as the prior administration’s obstruction of congressional intent and helps strengthen American energy dominance while preventing similar policies in the future.

Adam Gustafson, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division, said the settlement advances President Trump’s effort to expand development of Alaska’s resources. He said the Bureau of Land Management will now administer the oil and gas leasing program according to the plain meaning of the governing statute, resulting in more oil leasing, more domestic energy production and greater independence from foreign energy sources.

Under the settlement, the Justice Department said the government conceded that the 2024 program violated the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in several respects. Those included effectively abdicating the Interior Department’s duty to conduct a second lease sale, closing 75% of the Coastal Plain’s 1.56 million acres to exploration and leasing, imposing what the department described as unreasonable surface-use restrictions on the remaining 25% of the area, and limiting program-wide surface disturbance to 995 acres rather than the “up to 2,000 acres” explicitly authorized under the tax law.

The Justice Department said the settlement advances national and energy security interests by clarifying the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s requirements, identifying violations of those requirements and prohibiting the Interior Department from repeating those violations in future decisions governing the leasing program.