Judge stops oil sales in Alaska because of beluga whales

A federal judge has suspended the sale of oil off the coast of Alaska, saying the Interior Department failed to consider the cumulative impact on endangered white whales.

Judge Sharon Gleason of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska ordered in her ruling Tuesday that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management conduct a supplemental analysis of how the lease sale of about 1 million acres in 2022 could affect the whales. Due to historical overfishing, the whale population in Alaska’s Cook Inlet is less than 300 animals.

Gleason also found that BOEM violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to offer sufficient alternatives in its environmental review. The judge said she decided not to set aside the sale, Lease Sale 258, because it must be completed by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) by December 2022.

“The Court finds that reversal would be contrary to the executive order of Congress,” the judge wrote.