Alaska Seeks to Intervene in Lawsuit over Oil Operations

January 11, 2022

(Anchorage, AK) - Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor asked a U.S. District Court judge this week to allow the State of Alaska to intervene in a lawsuit by environmental groups that seeks to significantly limit oil and gas activities in the Beaufort Sea region.

The environmental groups filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Department of Interior in September after the federal government announced plans to allow entities to conduct certain oil exploration, development and production activities that may pose a nonlethal nuisance to polar bears and Pacific walruses.

As the primary steward of the state's natural resources and its wildlife, Alaska has a vested interest in intervening in the lawsuit, Attorney General Taylor said.

"We have the responsibility as Alaskans to protect our wildlife while effectively managing our vast and abundant natural resources, and we are already doing just that within the existing regulatory framework," Attorney General Taylor said. "This lawsuit seeks to upend oil and gas production and development in the south Beaufort Sea and the North Slope without regard for exhaustive studies and a long history demonstrating that these activities will have minimal impact on marine mammals."

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit argue the Court should block the federal government's issuance of Letters of Authorization (LOAs) to companies for oil and gas industry operations that could be considered "harassment" of marine mammals. The federal government's final regulation authorizing LOAs in the Southern Beaufort Sea region for the next five years took effect in August.

At that time, the federal government stated the activities in question will have no significant impact on the marine mammal population, based on a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental assessment. In addition, the authorized activities will not have an adverse impact on subsistence hunting, the Department of Interior said.

Conversely, limitations on oil and gas industry activities would drastically harm Alaska and its economy. The state derives nearly one-quarter of its general fund revenues from the oil and gas industry. Oil and gas is the state's largest non-governmental industry, accounting for 17 percent of private sector jobs. This most recent lawsuit is just one of many that the state is involved in trying to maintain viable and responsible resource industries in Alaska.

In the state's motion to intervene in the lawsuit, the Attorney General maintained that Alaska must have a seat at the table when it comes to any litigation that implicates both state revenues and the obligations of the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Fish and Game.

"Any possible solution involving a change in management of the polar bear or Pacific walrus, or other marine mammal species, or development of Alaska's resources, would necessarily require Alaska's participation and approval," the motion stated.

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Department Media Contact:Communications Director Aaron Sadler.