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In April, President Joe Biden's administration took steps to
limit both oil and gas drilling and mining in Alaska.
The regulations blocked development on 40% of NPR-A to protect
wildlife habitat and indigenous communities' way of life, but
did not affect existing oil and gas operations.
"The new rules were passed without proper input from affected
parties, exceeded their congressional authorization and were
rushed into place as an end-run on congressional oversight," the
state of Alaska said in a statement.
The NPR-A, as it is known, is a 23 million-acre (9.3 million
hectare) area on the state's North Slope that is the largest
tract of undisturbed public land in the United States.
"This lawsuit seeks to prevent overreach by federal agencies
that disregard Alaska's rights", Alaskan Attorney General Treg
Taylor said.
Alaska said it had sought to participate in the rulemaking
process, submitted thoughtful comments and requested additional
time to prepare comments. However, it claims that the "rules
were passed in haste to beat a potential change in congressional
oversight".
Earlier on Tuesday, Alaska sued the federal government seeking
to recover revenues it lost out on after the Biden
administration canceled oil and gas drilling leases in the 19.6
million-acre (7.9 million-hectare) federal Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonali
Paul)
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