A US federal judge has stopped the government sale of federal oil leases to private companies in a part of Alaska considered a haven for migratory birds and caribou.
The decision blocks the sale of about 1.7 million acres that the US government's Bureau of Land Management had planned to sell tomorrow. The sale would have included the Teshekpuk Lake area, which sits above two billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Environmental groups have argued that a 600,000-acre section of the reserve at Teshekpuk Lake contains some of the most important wetlands in the Arctic.
The decision by Judge James K. Singleton echoed a decision he had issued on September 7th that temporarily halted the sale.
The US government is fighting hard put at least a portion of the lease up for bid. The Interior Department had offered last week to temporarily abandon the sale of oil leases near the lake, asking the court to allow the leases outside the Teshekpuk region to proceed.
The ruling expressly forbids the US from selling leases to tracts on the northeast section of the reserve. But the government is consulting with its lawyers to see whether the decision leaves room for sales in the northwest section, according to a bureau spokeswoman.
Plaintiffs, including the National Audubon Society and the Center for Biological Diversity, called the ruling a victory.
"We believe and hope that when the government takes a full look at the environmental impact to this area, it will come out with a decision that protects the resources better," said a lawyer for Earthjustice.