Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority v. Biden

After the Biden administration issued a final record of decision for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Program on December 8, 2024, plaintiffs who unsuccessfully challenged the June 2021 moratorium on the program and suspension of oil and gas leases asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss their appeal. They asked either that the Ninth Circuit dismiss the appeal as moot or that the court grant a motion for voluntary dismissal. On January 24, 2025, the Ninth Circuit granted the motion for voluntary dismissal. The Ninth Circuit did not address the mootness issue.

The federal district court for the District of Alaska concluded that the September 2023 cancellation of the plaintiff’s oil and gas leases for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge did not moot the case challenging the Biden administration’s 2021 moratorium on ANWR leasing program activities while supplemental environmental review was conducted. The court also rejected the plaintiff’s motion requesting that it alter or amend its August 2023 decision rejecting the plaintiffs’ challenges to the moratorium. The plaintiff had asked the court to modify the decision to “recognize that the various follow-up matters ancillary to the issuance of the leases … must be addressed by the Federal Defendants with an urgency and timeliness proportional to the statutory deadline” of December 2021 established by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 for issuance of the leases.