Center for Biological Diversity v. Burgum

After the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service completed <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/09/08/2025-17219/endangered-species-and-eagles-issuance-of-biological-opinion-and-permit">new</a> <a href="https://www.permitting.gov/newsroom/press-releases/alaska-lng-completes-federal-permitting-ahead-schedule">consultations</a> under the Endangered Species Act for the Alaska LNG Project, Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club moved to voluntarily dismiss their challenge to the original biological opinions. The organizations had contended that the biological opinions did not fully examine and mitigate harms to polar bears, Cook Inlet beluga whales, and North Pacific right whales. The case had been held in abeyance since November 2024, when the Ninth Circuit granted federal respondents’ request for abeyance to allow the Services to reinitiate consultation.

Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club filed a petition for review in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the biological opinions prepared pursuant to the Endangered Species Act regarding a liquefied natural gas project (LNG) in Alaska. In their announcement of the lawsuit, the organizations said federal agencies failed to fully examine and mitigate the project’s harms to polar bears, Cook Inlet beluga whales, and North Pacific right whales.