Alaska Wilderness League v. Jewell

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal as moot after Shell announced that it would "cease further exploration activity in offshore Alaska for the foreseeable future.” The Ninth Circuit said that "dramatic changes in circumstances have rendered remote and speculative the possibility that any oil and gas exploration activity will occur ... in the less than three years" remaining before the regulation expired.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to stay the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval of Shell’s offshore oil exploration plan for the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska while a challenge to the approval is pending. The denial of the injunction was without prejudice to renewal before a merits panel. The Ninth Circuit also sua sponte expedited the appeal. The plaintiffs’ claims focus on the plan’s impact on wildlife and cites the “dramatic negative” effects of climate change on the Chukchi Sea habitat.

The court upheld the regulation authorizing incidental take of Pacific walruses, including the issuance of a finding of no significant impact.