**PRESS RELEASE**
HOMER, AK — Cook Inletkeeper condemns the federal government’s draft 11th Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) 5-year plan, which proposes five new oil and gas lease sales in Lower Cook Inlet between 2027 and 2031. The plan proposes oil and gas lease sales across the U.S. Pacific coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and opens every region of Alaska’s coastal waters except for Bristol Bay. With more than twenty-one sales in Alaska, from the Gulf of Alaska to the High Arctic, including five sales in Cook Inlet, the OCS 5-year plan will open areas of Alaska that have never been subjected to such industrial pressure before.
The 5-year plan is the latest installment of the staggering twelve lease sales planned for Cook Inlet over the next seven years, which include:
- Lease Sale 258: one sale (Lease Sale 258) with no public input allowed on the Supplemental EIS, contrary to the typical National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process.
- Six mandated sales from the “Big Beautiful Bill,” all NEPA-exempt.
- Five additional sales in the new 5-year plan, with only limited comment opportunities.
All of these lease sales exploit bureaucratic and congressional loopholes to reduce public input, and circumvent the NEPA process.
“That’s twelve separate chances for the oil and gas industry to carve up Lower Cook Inlet while the public has fewer opportunities than ever to participate,” said Loren Barrett, Co-Executive Director of Cook Inletkeeper. “This pile-up of overlapping lease authorities threatens the region’s fisheries, subsistence resources, wildlife, and coastal communities — and a major spill in these waters would be catastrophic.”
In 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approved Lease Sale 258 without adequately analyzing cumulative risks to Cook Inlet belugas, vessel noise impacts, or alternatives for a reduced sale and meaningful reduction of overall impacts to Cook Inlet’s fragile ecosystem. These failures prompted Inletkeeper and partners to successfully challenge the lease sale’s approval in court. The court agreed that BOEM had violated NEPA, ordered the agency to go back and conduct a supplemental environmental impact statement, and suspended Hilcorp’s lease while the review was underway. However, BOEM now plans to finalize its supplemental environmental review by the end of 2025 without releasing a draft for any public hearings or community input, breaking with 50 years of NEPA practice.
The decision to remove the public from the process on Lease Sale 258 followed the Big Beautiful Bill Act’s mandate to hold at least six offshore oil and gas lease sales in Cook Inlet, one each year from 2026 to 2028, and again from 2030 to 2032. Because these sales have Congressional approval, BOEM claims they do not require an environmental review through NEPA, and consequentially will not have any public hearings or comment periods. There is a limited 60-day window that allows for affected local governments to weigh in. This comment period is currently underway, but the opportunity, which closes January 9th, falls directly over the holidays.
Among this slew of actions to open Lower Cook Inlet to oil and gas, the public is only granted the opportunity to voice their concerns about the new OCS 5-year plan. BOEM is accepting public comments on the draft 5-year plan from now until January 23, 2026.
“The majority of this comment period falls during a time of year when people deservedly take a break to connect with friends, family and community,” Satchel Pondolfino, Clean Water Lead at Inletkeeper, commented. “The move to hold the comment period over the holidays will surely squeeze Alaskans’ ability to participate, and further demonstrates BOEM’s lack of commitment to the wellbeing of the local people impacted by its decision-making.”
Despite this administration’s efforts to cut out public voices, Inletkeeper is committed to elevating Alaskan voices and expertise across these twelve lease sales. Inletkeeper has launched a petition urging federal agencies to open Lease Sale 258’s supplemental environmental impact statement for full public review and comment, and will be working with local stakeholders to draft comments on the 5-year plan.
“Now is the time for Alaskans and Americans to speak up for our energy future,” Barrett said. “If we stay silent now, we may not get the chance to speak again.”
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