Press Releases

Federal regulators are allowing the challenged lease sale to move forward without any additional measures to protect endangered beluga whales, and with no hearings or public comment.

Cook Inletkeeper denounced 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 draft plan proposes opening approximately 1.27 billion acres of public waters nationwide for oil and gas development across the U.S. Pacific coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and nearly all regions of Alaska’s coastal waters. The Cook Inlet sales are part of a broader sequence of lease sales proposed for the region over the coming decade.