Groups sue to block oil production in Alaska's Beaufort Sea

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Five conservation groups filed a lawsuit today seeking to block oil production from a proposed artificial gravel island in federal Arctic waters.

The groups asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review an offshore production plan approved for the Liberty project in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's north coast.

The groups said the plan violates federal law governing outer continental shelf drilling, the environment and endangered species. The Trump administration failed to consider impacts of an oil spill in remote Arctic waters or effects of drilling on polar bears and other endangered species, said Kristen Monsell of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that sued.

"An oil spill in the Arctic would be impossible to clean up in a region already stressed by climate change," she said.

Drilling law requires the administration to reject development if the risks to the human and marine environment outweigh the benefits of oil extraction. That includes both spills and climate change, Monsell said.

"Here the agency used the totally inadequate analysis that actually found that the 'no action' alternative – not approving the project – would actually result in more greenhouse gas emissions, which is just completely ridiculous on its face, and also ridiculous given the modeling they used," Monsell said.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management did not immediately respond to an email request for comment today.