Environmental groups sued the federal government in relation to the federal lease sale in Cook Inlet next week. They claim that the environmental analysis of the sale was not complete and didn’t consider other less harmful options.
This long-awaited federal sale will be open for bidding on nearly 1 million acres. It was cancelled previously due to insufficient industry interest. It’s now required by federal law as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduce Act.
Sue Mauger, executive director of Cook Inletkeeper and one of the plaintiffs in this suit, is Sue Mauger. She stated that the environmental review was done in a hurry to meet the end-of the year deadline.
Mauger stated, “Just because they were rushed in order to get this done does not mean that they can skip steps.” They clearly did.
She claimed that the Interior Department did not consider alternative options to reduce the impact of oil and natural gas development on wildlife, such as auctioning off smaller areas of the inlet. She also said that the process doesn’t take into consideration the requirements of NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act), which establishes the ground rules for environmental regulations.
Mauger stated that “we ultimately want no oil leaks.” “We want to minimize, if not eliminate, any impacts on our whales, sea otters, and fisheries,” Mauger stated.
It is not clear what would happen to leaseholders, if a judge made a ruling after the sale.
Mauger stated that the plaintiffs want oil and gas companies to take the suit into consideration before they bid. She also said that it was important to inform the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that it must conduct a more thorough environmental review before it holds another sale in the Gulf of Mexico.
She stated that the first thing she hoped was that no one would bid on December 30. BOEM could also realize that they have rushed through too many things and not addressed many concerns. This would allow them to go back and come up with an environmental impact statement that is more reasonable.
The Department of the Interior did not respond to the suit.
It is not certain that oil and gas companies are going to place bids for next week’s sale. In recent years, Hilcorp, an oil and gas company has been the only one to bid for federal leases. Recently, the company announced that it was reviewing its natural-gas contracts amid uncertainty.
Another lease sale is currently taking place in Cook Inlet’s state waters. This sale covers 2.8 million acres onshore and offshore, from Wasilla to Anchor Point.
