Alaska Native lawsuit accuses feds of hiding Arctic refuge oil impact information

Alaska Natives and environmental groups sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, accusing it of concealing information about the effects of oil development in the long-protected Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Reuters reports. 

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, alleges the U.S. Department of the Interior broke federal law by failing to produce information about how it drew up plans for oil leasing in the refuge. Numerous requests filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act have been stonewalled for months, the plaintiffs allege.

“This case is about bringing transparency to what has been a rushed and secretive process to sell out a national treasure to the oil industry,” Patrick Lavin, Alaska policy adviser for Defenders of Wildlife, one of four plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement.

The refuge, in northwestern Alaska, had been off-limits to oil development for decades. But a 2017 tax overhaul signed into law by President Donald Trump included a provision requiring lease sales in the refuge’s 1.5 million acre coastal plain, a region long coveted by the oil industry for its hydrocarbon potential but prized by natives and environmentalists for its wildlife value.