A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to reopen millions of acres of offshore waters to potential oil and gas drilling that his predecessors had placed off-limits.
Chief Judge Sharon Gleason of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska ruled on Aug. 24 that a coalition of environmental advocacy groups lacked standing, at least for now, to pursue the case.
The groups failed to show that they faced imminent injury from Trump’s 2025 reversal of former President Joe Biden’s orders withdrawing broad areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from oil and gas leasing, Gleason said.
Biden issued the withdrawals shortly before Trump returned to office for a second term. The measures placed large areas of federal waters in the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans, as well as portions of the Gulf of Mexico, now called the Gulf of America, off-limits to future oil and gas leasing.
The dispute is part of a years-long back-and-forth over offshore drilling policy. Some of the protections had roots in withdrawals made during the Obama administration that Trump sought to reverse during his first term.
The order, signed on Jan. 20, 2025, as part of a large array of the president’s Day One executive actions, paved the way for the second Trump administration to expand access to federal lands and waters for energy development.
In November 2025, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum launched a process proposing as many as 34 potential offshore oil and gas lease sales, including 21 areas off Alaska, seven in the Gulf of America, and six off the California coast.
The Interior Department has separately moved to open the 1.56-million-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas leasing.
In the Aug. 24 order dismissing the case, Gleason noted that although the Interior Department appeared likely to move ahead with additional oil exploration and development, several steps would still have to occur before the environmental groups could show they were directly harmed.
“The Court can only speculate as to whether any of the previously withdrawn OCS acreage will be included in any new oil and gas leasing program or proposed lease sale,” the judge concluded.
The ruling leaves open the possibility that the plaintiffs could sue again if the administration approves leasing or drilling in the areas in question.
It also did not address the underlying question whether a president has the authority to revoke offshore drilling restrictions imposed by a predecessor.
The lawsuit, filed in February 2025, argued that Trump lacked such authority.
The environmental groups also said that the potential development could cause “significant, wide-ranging adverse impacts” to endangered species, as well as the broader marine and coastal ecosystems on which native Alaskan tribes rely for subsistence.
Earthjustice, whose attorneys represented the environmental groups, said it would return to court if federal officials move toward drilling in the affected areas.
“We’re disappointed the court found that offshore drilling activities are not imminent,” George Torgun, senior attorney for Earthjustice’s Oceans Program, said in a statement to The Epoch Times. “This administration has been doing everything in its power to open our coasts to fossil fuel development.
“We continue to maintain that President Trump’s attempt to open withdrawn areas for oil leasing is unlawful, and we intend to pursue those claims if and when offshore activities are on the horizon.”
The Justice Department, which represented the federal government in the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
