Lawsuits challenge renewed push for oil drilling in Alaska petroleum reserve and upcoming lease sale

Conservation organizations and an Iñupiat group have filed legal challenges to the Trump administration’s renewed push for oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and an upcoming lease sale. They say the sale planned for next month improperly makes available ecologically sensitive lands that have been long protected. At least two lawsuits challenging the lease sale were filed Tuesday. The sale would be the first in the reserve since 2019 and the first under a law passed by Congress last year calling for at least five lease sales there over a 10-year period.