Federal Court Reverses Offshore Oil Lease Sale That Threatened Belugas off Alaska’s Coast

National and community-based environmental groups celebrated a legal victory on Tuesday, when a federal district court judge overturned an offshore oil-and-gas lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet because the federal government violated the law when holding the sale. Lease Sale 258, held by the Department of Interior in December 2022, opened nearly a million acres of federal waters in Southcentral Alaska to the fossil fuel industry, potentially locking in decades of future oil-and-gas drilling.

The Interior Department originally canceled Lease Sale 258 in May 2022, but then announced it would move ahead in August after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Though that legislation spurred unprecedented efforts to address climate change, it included a provision reviving the Cook Inlet lease sale (along with two others in the Gulf of Mexico: Lease Sales 259 and 261, which are being litigated).

While Lease Sale 258 only resulted in one bid for a relatively small tract (5,693 acres), the areas auctioned off to bidder Hilcorp overlapped with critical habitat for federally endangered marine mammals. Cook Inlet is home to beluga whales and sea otters protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Tuesday’s ruling noted that, among other things, the Department of Interior failed to fully consider the lease sale’s cumulative impacts on beluga whales, as well as the issue of blaring vessel noise. Belugas use sound to “see” in a process known as echolocation, which supports behaviors such as hunting, avoiding obstacles, and finding each other, so noise impacts can threaten whales’ survival. Following the ruling, Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) must conduct a supplemental environmental review and determine based on this new review whether or not to add protections or redo the lease sale. The ruling also suspends Hilcorp’s lease while this process is underway. Since the start of 2024 alone, Hilcorp has been the subject of four different enforcement actions from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC).

In addition to endangered marine life, Cook Inlet also supports thriving subsistence, commercial, and recreational fisheries and a multi-faceted tourist industry, fed by visitors from around the world who are drawn by the region’s unparalleled natural beauty. The Inlet is also essential for Alaska Native communities, who have stewarded these lands and waters for millennia. Alaska, meanwhile, is experiencing more extreme consequences of climate change than the continental United States. Coastal erosion, thawing permafrost, melting sea ice, and fishery collapse are all ramifications of the worsening global climate crisis, which will only intensify with new oil-and-gas drilling operations.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed the lawsuit together with Earthjustice, on behalf of Cook Inletkeeper, Kachemak Bay Conservation Society, and Alaska Community Action on Toxics.

Partnering organizations released the following statements in response to this favorable decision:

“Today’s legal victory is a win for Alaska communities, threatened beluga whales, and future generations who will face a hotter planet,” said Earthjustice attorney Carole Holley. “We’re celebrating the fact that this destructive lease sale has been sent back to the drawing board, and we will continue to push for a transition away from fossil fuels and toward a brighter and healthier energy future.”

“This is a huge victory for Cook Inlet belugas. I hope this decision makes it clear to federal officials that they can’t keep ignoring the ways offshore drilling threatens these critically endangered whales,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s reckless to keep destroying wildlife, ocean habitat, and our climate for oil and gas drilling and it needs to stop. Interior must do its job and protect our country’s irreplaceable public lands, waters, and wildlife from industrial havoc.”

“We are glad that the court recognizes the long-term harm that this lease sale would cause to our precious marine environment, belugas, and coastal communities,” said Pamela Miller, executive director of Alaska Community Action on Toxics. “This is the time for restoration and renewal, and for a swift transition to renewable energy, not more offshore oil and gas lease sales which will only perpetuate harm. Given the history of the oil corporations’ illegal dumping of toxic waste, spills, noise, and chronic damage, we must ensure that Interior fulfills its responsibility to protect our fisheries, wildlife, and health of our communities.”

“This ruling helps protect Cook Inlet’s vibrant ecosystem, which is home to endangered beluga whales, and supports productive fishing grounds and culturally important sites for Alaska Natives,” said Irene Gutierrez, Senior Attorney for NRDC. “The region should not be sacrificed to decades of oil drilling. Interior must fully consider the range of potential harms when it carries out the court’s ruling.”

“Today’s victory in Cook Inlet is a triumph of community resilience and environmental stewardship,” said Loren Barrett, Co-Executive Director at Cook Inletkeeper. “Our coastal communities have long resisted oil and gas leasing, understanding the irreversible impacts of industrial disasters and the need to preserve Cook Inlet’s habitat, fisheries, and natural beauty. By overturning Lease Sale 258, the court has recognized the critical importance of safeguarding Cook Inlet’s dynamic ecosystem, and an essential piece of habitat required to ensure the continued survival of the iconic Cook Inlet Beluga whale.”

“We are incredibly happy that the Court has sent this harmful oil sale back to the Department of Interior, which must now properly analyze the impacts of offshore oil drilling on beluga whales and the marine life upon which we so depend,” said with Roberta Highland, President of Kachemak Bay Conservation Society. “The government has an obligation to recognize the connection between human activities and the waters we rely on, and the waters of Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay comingle. The climate crisis is here and we must do everything in our power to recognize and rectify the challenges it presents for us and future generations. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”