Court Allows Alaska Energy Exploration to Proceed

The U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska rejected an attempt to halt a project exploring federal oil and gas resources in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve.

In November 2025, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved a permit application allowing ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. to conduct a one-year project involving seismic exploration and the drilling of multiple exploration wells in the National Petroleum Reserve. The plaintiffs sued, challenging the permit approval and seeking a preliminary injunction to halt the project. The court denied plaintiffs’ request, finding that they failed to raise even serious questions on the merits because BLM conducted a reasonably thorough analysis of the project’s impacts.

“Developing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential involves many challenges. Lawsuits like this shouldn’t be one of them,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “We stand ready to advance President Trump’s objective of unleashing American energy.”