Ninth Circuit Declares Interior Chukchi Sea Oil Leases Arbitrary and Capricious (in part)

Here are the materials in Native Village of Point Hope v. Jewell:

CA9 opinion

An excerpt:

The panel reversed the district court’s summary judgment entered in favor of federal defendants in an action challenging the government’s environmental impact statements  analyzing the environmental effects of proposed leases for oil and gas development in the Chukchi Sea of the northwest coast of Alaska.

The panel held that the Final Environmental Impact Statement and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement prepared by the federal defendants properly took account of incomplete or unavailable information. The panel held, however, that the reliance in the Final Environmental Impact Statement on a one million barrel estimate of  total economically recoverable oil was arbitrary and capricious.The panel remanded for further proceedings.

Judge Rawlinson concurred in part and dissented in part. Judge Rawlinson agreed with most of the majority opinion, but she did not agree that the federal Bureau of Ocean  Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement acted arbitrarily in selecting one billion barrels of oil as the benchmark for analyzing the environmental affects of the proposed leases.

Briefs are here:

Appellants Opening Brief

Alaska Answer Brief

Interior Answer Brief

Oil Companies Answer Brief

Appellants Reply Brief