Interior Can Transfer Acreage to Alaska, Judge Rules

The Department of the Interior can transfer ownership of more than 2 million acres of public land in Alaska to state control, a federal judge ruled late last week (POLITICO’s GREENWIRE, subscription).

What’s going on: U.S. District Judge Aaron Peterson last Friday denied a request by environmental groups to stop the transfer of 1.38 million acres tentatively approved by the DOI early this year for a changeover to Alaskan ownership.

• While Peterson permitted a lawsuit filed by the groups in March over the remaining 700,000 acres to proceed, he rejected the organizations’ request for a preliminary injunction.
• The 1.38 million acres “includes much of the Trans-Alaska pipeline corridor and will allow the state to more quickly approve permits for the proposed Ambler Road.”
• That project, a 211-mile industrial route from Alaska’s Dalton Highway to the remote Ambler Mining District, would enable U.S. access to multiple large deposits of critical minerals, according to the administration.

The background: The land transfer was initiated after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s February order revoking early-1970s withdrawal requirements for the land.

• Burgum’s order advanced a decades-old commitment in the 1958 Alaska Statehood Act to transfer 103 million acres of vacant federal land to the state.

The NAM says: “Critical minerals are vital to modern manufacturing, and the Ambler Road project will unlock U.S. access to significant deposits,” said NAM Senior Director of Energy and Resources Policy Mike Davin.

• “Manufacturers support doing everything possible to access and develop those deposits in a manner that both protects the environment and pushes the United States to be energy dominant on the world stage.”