Alaska Judge Dismisses Challenge to President Trump’s Rescission of Withdrawals Areas of the Outer Continental Shelf from Oil and Gas Leasing

The U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska earlier this week dismissed the complaint in a case challenging President Trump's rescission of Biden-era withdrawals of areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from oil and gas leasing. The court dismissed the case for lack of standing.

During his final days in office, President Biden withdrew over 600 million acres of the OCS from offshore oil and gas leasing. On his first day in office, President Trump rescinded the withdrawals, allowing those acres of the OCS to be considered in a future offshore oil and gas leasing program. A coalition of environmental groups challenged President Trump's action, claiming that the rescission of the withdrawals was unlawful and would result in potential imminent harm to the environment from exploration activities. The court rejected the groups' arguments, finding that there were "no pending applications for [geological and geophysical] exploration activities in any waters outside of the Western and Central [Gulf of America]." The court concluded that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate a substantial risk of imminent harm and therefore dismissed the case without prejudice for lack of standing.

"The court properly dismissed plaintiffs' case, because they failed to show an imminent injury from President Trump's reopening of the OCS," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department's Energy and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). "Where and when energy development will occur depends on a regulatory process that's still underway and must be allowed to continue. Neither the President's policy priorities nor industry's expressions of interest could convert a speculative injury into a concrete one."

Attorneys with ENRD's Natural Resources Section handled this matter.