Alaska Borough Joins State in Petroleum Reserve Oil Ban Fight

Alaska’s North Slope Borough is joining ConocoPhillips, the state of Alaska, and two other oil companies in challenging the Interior Department’s decision to block most oil and gas drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

The complaint, filed July 5 in the US District Court for the District of Alaska, challenges the Bureau of Land Management’s May rule that aimed to protect fragile Arctic tundra ecosystems on Alaska’s North Slope, a region that global warming is quickly thawing as humans continue to burn fossil fuels.

The rule closed about 11 million acres of the 23.5 million-acre reserve to all ...