December 17, 2020: In a hastily crafted provision of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Congress removed the longstanding prohibition against oil and gas activities on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge National Wildlife Refuge and directed BLM to establish a leasing program.
After a rushed and unlawful environmental review process, in August 2020 BLM decided to open the entire Coastal Plain to oil and gas leasing and exploration. In addition, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a “biological opinion” and “no jeopardy” finding for polar bears—which rely on the Coastal Plain for maternal denning—based entirely on the requirement that BLM would not permit any on-the-ground activities absent the operator/lessee first providing proof that it had obtained authorization from the Service to “take” (e.g., harm, harass, capture, or kill) polar bears under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, rather than on any actual analysis of the impacts of foreseeable oil and gas activities. Under the Act, the Service may issue an incidental take authorization only if there will be no more than a negligible impact on the stock (here the Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear population).
In August 2020, the Sierra Club and its allies, led by the Gwich'in Steering Committee, brought suit in the District of Alaska to challenge the record of decision and biological opinion.The Sierra Club is represented by Trustees for Alaska and Environmental Law Program attorney Karimah Schoenhut. Karimah has been closely involved with identifying the technical and legal issues related to the impacts of seismic surveys and other oil and gas activities on polar bears in the Refuge. For example, when SAExploration sought authorization for a Coastal Plain seismic survey in 2018, Karimah worked with polar bear expert Dr. Steven Amstrup to develop a quantitative analysis that derailed the approval of the seismic survey and prompted the Service to develop a new approach to assessing the impacts of on-shore seismic activities on denning polar bears. Karimah continues to work closely with Dr. Amstrup and other experts to identify technical problems with the federal agencies’ modeling and decision documents for seismic activity proposed for this winter, and to identify the legal deficiencies under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and other laws. Karimah also notified BLM of its violations of the Endangered Species Act, and Sierra Club's intent to sue, with a detailed analysis of the deficiencies in the Biological Opinion for the Coastal Plain Leasing Program, and BLM's unlawful reliance on it.
In response to the Trump administration's shameful attempt to offer the entire Coastal Plain for lease sale on January 6th, 2021, Sierra Club and its allies recently filed a motion for emergency relief in its on-going challenge to the Leasing Program, asking the court to enjoin BLM from taking any further actions under the unlawfully established program, such as issuing leases to bidders or authorizing the seismic exploration proposed for this winter.