Judge suspends controversial federal Cook Inlet lease sale, citing impacts on beluga whales

A Cook Inlet beluga whale mother and calf (Hollis Europe and Jacob Barbaro/NOAA Fisheries)

A national judge is sending Interior Department officials backmost to nan drafting committee aft concluding a Cook Inlet lipid and state lease waste didn’t adequately see nan imaginable impacts connected endangered beluga whales successful nan area.

The ruling temporarily suspends a lease held by ascendant Cook Inlet shaper Hilcorp. The privately held Texas-based lipid and state institution won a 5,693-acre lease successful a 2022 sale. 

Hilcorp was nan only bidder successful nan lease sale, which was mandated by nan 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. At nan insistence of West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, that climate-focused national rule besides included provisions mandating lipid and state lease income successful Cook Inlet and nan Gulf of Mexico.

A conjugation of Alaska-based and nationalist biology groups challenged nan Cook Inlet lease sale. They based on nan Interior Department agency that offered nan waste had not taken a difficult capable look astatine nan imaginable impacts of drilling connected nan endangered organization of astir 300 beluga whales that unrecorded successful Cook Inlet. Oil and state accumulation involves large undersea noises from things for illustration piledriving, drilling and alloy traffic, and nan groups based on that tin interfere pinch belugas’ echolocation. 

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason agreed, but she stopped short of vacating nan lease waste entirely. She ordered nan Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to travel up pinch a supplemental biology study and a scope of replacement lease arrangements that amended relationship for nan imaginable impacts connected Cook Inlet beluga whales.

“In sum, nan Court finds that BOEM grounded to see a reasonable scope of alternatives astatine nan leasing shape successful usurpation of [the National Environmental Policy Act] because it grounded to see immoderate replacement that would connection for lease a reduced number of blocks that would meaningfully trim wide impacts, could feasibly meet nan intent and request of Lease Sale 258, and would amended let for ‘informed decision-making and informed nationalist participation,’” Gleason wrote successful nan 49-page order.

That could yet unit nan Interior Department to shrink aliases cancel Hilcorp’s lease, said Earthjustice lawyer Carole Holley, who represented nan Center for Biological Diversity, nan Natural Resources Defense Council, Cook Inletkeeper, Alaska Community Action connected Toxics and nan Kachemak Bay Conservation Society.

“This ruling conscionable confirms that nan Inflation Reduction Act is acold much constricted successful scope than manufacture and its allies, and successful this case, nan authorities of Alaska, person been pushing, and it does not override NEPA, aliases our different bedrock biology laws,” Holley said by phone.

The National Environmental Policy Act is simply a Nixon-era rule that requires national agencies to measure nan imaginable biology impacts of their actions. Earthjustice and a assortment of conservation groups are besides challenging akin lease sales mandated by nan Inflation Reduction Act successful nan Gulf of Mexico.

Though nan authorities of Alaska and national authorities often conflict connected assets development, Alaska intervened successful nan lawsuit to support nan lease sale. Department of Law Communications Director Patty Sullivan said successful a prepared connection that nan authorities was disappointed by nan decision.

“In 2022 Congress sought to supply certainty for this overdue and agelong awaited lease sale,” Sullivan said. “The authorities is disappointed pinch nan continued uncertainty successful leasing caused by nan court’s order, which is antagonistic to nan intent of Congress to supply certainty.”

A spokesperson for nan Alaska agency of nan Bureau of Ocean Energy Management did not respond to a telephone telephone seeking comment. The agency manages lipid and state activity successful national waters, which generally statesman 3 miles offshore. Most Cook Inlet lipid and state accumulation occurs onshore aliases successful authorities waters. 

Hilcorp is the only institution pinch progressive national leases successful Cook Inlet, though none of its 15 national leases were producing lipid aliases state arsenic of January 2024, according to Interior Department data. Hilcorp did not respond to a telephone telephone seeking comment. 

Oil and state manufacture analysts point to semipermanent trends, including rising renewable power accumulation and higher accumulation costs, arsenic reasons for lackluster liking successful caller lipid and state lease sales.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will beryllium required to update nan tribunal connected its advancement connected a supplemental biology study successful six months, nan judge ruled.