Alaska and North Slope Communities Decide to "Sue the Bastards
The lease cancellations also deprived Alaska of expected revenue derived from corporate income taxes and local taxes stemming from the oil and gas construction activities,
ANWR Lawsuit
The state of Alaska sued the Biden administration to recover lost revenues after it canceled oil and gas drillin n 2017 secured the opportunity to develop the leasesthrough a provision included in a tax cut bill that was signed by President Trump.
In the final days of the Trump administration, it issued nine, 10-year leases for drilling in ANWR after a lease sale was held January 6, 2021. Two of the entities that won leases withdrew from their holdings in 2022, and Biden’s Department of Interior canceled the remaining seven leases last September, which had been issued to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.
In October, the state agency filed a separate lawsuit which remains pending before a federal judge in Anchorage that argues the administration’s decision violates a clear Congressional mandate in the 2017 tax bill to open up ANWR to drilling.
The state in the most recent lawsuit focused on the financial impacts of the Biden administration’s actions on Alaska and sought to “compel the United States to face the logical and legal consequences of its policy decision.” Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the state was entitled to a royalty of 8.335 percent of the revenues generated through production of oil and gas under the leases.
The lease cancellations also deprived Alaska of expected revenue derived from corporate income taxes and local taxes stemming from the oil and gas construction activities, which would have produced billions of dollars in revenue that would benefit the education, health and well-being of residents of Alaska, whose state budgeting is heavily reliant on oil production. The case is the State of Alaska v. United States, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, No. 1:24-cv-01017.
Conclusion
Alaska and some of its residents are suing the Biden administration over lost opportunities for oil production on the state’s North slope which would provide billions of dollars for the state budget and jobs for Alaskan residents. The Biden administration cancelled ANWR leases that were provided as a provision in a tax cut bill signed by President Trump.
The Biden administration also required the removal of areas of the NPR-A from further oil and gas development for environmental reasons that was originally issued as only guidelines under the Integrated Activity Plan of the Obama administration.
The National Petroleum Reserve was established in 1912 as a backup source of oil for the federal government, originally for the Navy, as it was at one time referred to as the Naval Petroleum Reserve. The Biden administration actions regarding oil production in the ANWR and the NPR-A are costing Alaskans billion of lost dollars and numerous jobs.
ANWR lies to the east of Prudhoe Bay and TAPS while the NPRA lies to the west. They both are federally owned, and have geological potential to contribute to the pipeline, which is currently running at less than ¼ of nameplate capacity.
If additional oil is added from these federal sources, it will extend the life of the line, while allowing Alaska full development and production of its resources, while supplying additional domestic production of energy. Green groups have long held that shutting off new sources of oil for the Alaska Pipeline would hasten its closure, while leaving billions of barrels of oil in the ground on- and offshore Alaska.