(CN) — A nonprofit corporation representing Arctic Iñupiat tribes that live on the North Slope of Alaska sued the Bureau of Land Management Monday afternoon, claiming the bureau’s final rule barring oil and gas development on the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska will devastate the indigenous people living on the North Slope.
In September 2023, the Biden administration proposed the rule, which would protect 13 million acres by limiting future oil and gas leasing and industrial development in the Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok Uplands, Colville River, Kasegaluk Lagoon, and Peard Bay Special Areas. These areas are collectively known for their globally significant intact habitat for wildlife, including grizzly and polar bears, caribou and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds.
“Our complaint speaks for the North Slope Iñupiat’s voices whom the federal government has chosen to silence, stonewall, and scorn since it blindsided us with its unilateral mandates in September 2023,” said Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE) president Nagruk Harcharek, in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “It is unfortunate that we have been forced to turn to the courts for resolution on this seriously flawed rule and the process that produced it. If the administration would have meaningfully engaged with the North Slope Iñupiat, we would likely not be in this position today.”
VOICE also represents other tribes, governments and elected indigenous leaders across the North Slope region.
The National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A) is part of ancestral Iñupiaq homelands and is located entirely within the North Slope Borough, a home-rule government created to ensure Iñupiaq communities would have a say and benefit from responsible development in the region.
“Stymieing further oil and gas activities in the NPR-A jeopardizes economic growth and opportunity for all North Slope residents and threatens the livelihoods of thousands of Iñupiat. For example, the North Slope Borough was created to ensure that the local people would benefit and be provided services from the oil and gas industry through the ability to tax industry,” the nonprofit VOICE says in its 68-page complaint.
VOICE claims those tax receipts provide the vast majority of revenue for the North Slope Borough, which uses the revenue to provide essential public services including sewers, water, heat, sanitation, school, health care facilities, cultural programs, wildlife management, and social and cultural programs. The group credits the tax receipts with increasing the quality of life and lifespan of the Iñupiat people. They live an average of 77 years today, up from an average of 34 years in 1969.
In the complaint, VOICE noted that the North Slope Borough is the largest employer in the area, and that the oil and gas industries are also integral sources of employment for the people living on the North Slope. A third of jobs held by borough residents are directly or indirectly supported by the oil and gas industry.
“BLM’s actions here place all these economic benefits in serious jeopardy,” VOICE says in its complaint.
The group seeks an order declaring the final rule is invalid and did not have congressional authorization, and an injunction barring BLM from allowing, authorizing, or approving any action in reliance on the final NPR-A rule.
In addition to the economic harm, VOICE claims the Bureau of Land Management implemented the final rule despite unanimous criticism of the rule from Iñupiat communities, and did so under a compressed timeline while ignoring Iñupiat leaders and representatives.
“The rulemaking process was rife with canceled meetings, unreturned phone calls, and disrespect toward our people, exemplified by BLM’s decision to release its rule and the accompanying public comment period in the midst of our whole-of-community fall subsistence season. At every step, members of our North Slope Iñupiat tribes, village corporations, regional corporations, and their elected leaders have been unanimous in their opposition to the rule,” VOICE says in its complaint.
VOICE is represented by Matthew Findley with Ashburn and Mason in Anchorage.
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