Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government v. Bernhardt

Three federally recognized Indian Tribes filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Alaska challenging federal defendants’ approval of an oil and gas leasing program on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The plaintiffs asserted claims under NEPA, the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and the National Historic Preservation Act. With respect to climate change, the tribes contended that the defendants failed to meaningfully analyze climate change in relation to subsistence, sociocultural systems, and environmental justice; cultural resources; caribou; migratory waterfowl; vegetation, tundra, and wetlands; and soils, permafrost, sand, and gravel.