In a lawsuit first filed in 2020 to challenge the Secretary of the Interior’s August 2020 authorization of an oil and gas leasing program in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, three environmental organizations filed an amended and supplemental complaint on January 13, 2026 to also challenge the “newest iteration” of the authorization of the program, which the Secretary issued in October 2025. The plaintiffs assert that both the 2020 and 2025 programs exceeded congressional authorization and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the Wilderness Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, NEPA, and the Endangered Species Act. The complaint alleged that “[t]he Coastal Plain, like the rest of America’s Arctic, is already profoundly stressed by the effects of climate change” and that “[c]onsumption of fossil fuels—encouraged by expanded oil and gas development such as that proposed by Defendants the Secretary of the Interior and BLM in the Program—is the main cause of climate change.” The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants’ NEPA review “ignored or obscured potential harm to tundra, permafrost, and other landscape features, water quantity and quality, air quality, the climate, wilderness characteristics, and wildlife” and “included a misleadingly narrow range of alternatives.”

Challenge to federal review and approval of an oil and gas leasing program for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Natural Resources Defense Council v. Burgum

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Plaintiffs Challenged “Newest Iteration” of Oil and Gas Leasing Program on Coastal Plain of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Filed

United States of America

Alaska

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The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

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Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

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Plaintiffs Challenged “Newest Iteration” of Oil and Gas Leasing Program on Coastal Plain of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Policy instrument

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Finance