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Winter drilling program in Alaska petroleum preserve can proceed, judge rules
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FILE - In this undated photo provided by the United States Geological Survey, permafrost forms a grid-like pattern in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska managed by the Bureau of Land Management on Alaska's North Slope. - photo by David W. Houseknecht/United States Geological Survey via AP, File
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — ConocoPhillips Alaska can proceed with an oil and gas exploration program in a portion of a vast petroleum reserve in the state after a federal judge denied a request from project opponents to halt it. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason rejected a request by conservation groups and an Iñupiat-aligned group that sought to halt ConocoPhillips Alaska's planned exploration program in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska until the groups’ legal challenge to the program’s authorization by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management was resolved. The groups said the federal government improperly analyzed the drilling program.