Fight in the far North: Drilling opponents stand by their claims.
Opponents stick to their guns on OCS plan
One of the plaintiffs in a court case that struck down the five-year offshore leasing plan says it will ask a Washington DC appellate court to uphold its ruling that the plan is invalid and so are any leases issued under the plan.
An attorney with Center for Biological Diversity told UpstreamOnline her group would argue that the entire plan should be tossed and that any leases issued under the plan should be considered invalid in legal briefs expected to be filed later this month.
“We were quite happy with the vacature,” Center for Biological Diversity staff attorney in Alaska Rebecca Noblin told UpstreamOnline. “I think it is especially appropriate to vacate given the fact that the irrational balancing that Interior did is leading to them to lease in Chukchi, Beaufort and Alaska seas where they might not have had lease sales and there could be real harm to these areas.”
The American Petroleum Institute had filed a brief asking the DC appellate court to revisit its decision to vacate the entire plan, arguing instead it should simply be remanded to Interior to improve the environmental analysis.
Noblin reiterated that her group believes all leases issued under the current plan are invalid, a position that contradicts a brief filed by the Interior Department, which believes the court’s decision only affects future lease sales.
“In case law, when the DC circuit says to vacate it means vacate and these lease sales were based on that five-year plan,” Noblin said. “You can’t have lease sales without a leasing plan.”
An attorney with the API said even though his group chose not to challenge the court’s finding that the plan’ environmental analysis was deficient, it the sees no reason to throw out the entire five-year leasing plan.
“API considers domestic offshore leasing as a critical component to domestic energy security,” API managing counsel Erik Milito told UpstreamOnline. “This court ruling should not serve as an obstruction to continued leasing in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.”
But stopping leasing in the seas north of Alaska is exactly what Noblin hopes will happen.
“We really see this as an opportunity for Secretary Salazar to take a step back and put a stop to this leasing that the DC court,” found was based on an illegal plan, she said. “We hope the secretary will take this opportunity to take those leases off the table and come up with a more rational strategy for dealing with our energy problem.”
Center for Biological Diversity, with co-plaintiff the village of Point Hope, has until 28 May to file their response to the API petition.