Bracewell’s Ann Navaro shared her perspective with The New York Times about the challenges that the Trump Administration’s plan to sell oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
Navaro said that if courts in lease cases decide the relevant agencies did not comply with environmental laws, it might send the case back to the agency to reconsider the issue, with or without vacating the lease. The agency would have to start the process over again.
“I would say it’s not a common outcome of litigation, but it certainly can happen,” she said. Once President Biden’s administration begins, she added, they could “potentially even take it upon themselves to reconsider” the leases.
Biden vowed during the campaign to oppose oil and gas development in the refuge, a vast expanse of virtually untouched land in northeast Alaska that is home to polar bears, caribou and other wildlife.
