Opinion ID: 187344
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Leasing Program

Text: The Five-Year Leasing Program in this case was first developed on August 24, 2005. 70 Fed.Reg. 49,669. After developing and publishing a draft proposed plan, see 71 Fed.Reg. 7064 (Feb. 10, 2006), and reviewing commentary to that draft plan, Interior published a Proposed Plan and an accompanying draft EIS. Finally, Interior published its Proposed Final Plan in April 2007 along with its Final EIS for the approval stage of the Leasing Program. This was submitted to Congress and the President, and was later approved by the Secretary of Interior. In total, the Leasing Program has scheduled 21 potential lease-sales between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2012 in eight areas of the OCS. Four of those potential leasing areas are in the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi Seas off the Alaska coast. At the time the petitions challenging the approval of the Leasing Program were brought before this court, Interior had not yet conducted any lease-sales in these regions. Since that time, however, Interior has approved one lease-sale in the disputed Alaskan sea areas, Chukchi Sea Lease-Sale 193, which occurred on February 6, 2008. Petitioner Point Hope and others challenged this lease-sale in the federal district court for the District of Alaska.