U.S. judge clears path for Alaska oil lease sale

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, April 13 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal court has rejected an attempt by Alaska North Slope Inupiat Eskimos to stop an offshore oil and gas lease sale, clearing the way for the U.S. Minerals Management Service to sell exploration rights to the Beaufort Sea next week.

U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline said the agency had done adequate environmental planning, contrary to claims by the North Slope Borough and the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission that the agency failed to consider the changes wrought by a rapidly warming climate or the cumulative impacts of expanding oil development in that part of Alaska.

Next Wednesday's lease sale will offer 8.7 million acres off Alaska's northern coast. The MMS estimates the area holds the potential for 7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 32 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.

The North Slope Borough -- the local government for Alaska's mostly Inupiat northernmost district -- and the whaling commission had argued that the MMS erred in basing its leasing plan on an abbreviated environmental assessment rather than a more substantial environmental impact statement.

The North Slope Borough and the whaling commission had argued that the last full environmental study of offshore leasing in the Beaufort was four years old and outdated, in part because it lacked new information about the impact of global warming on polar bears.

But the judge said most of the negative impacts that the plaintiffs fear would come not from leasing but from drilling and development, activities that require another round of permitting and regulation.

The 2003 environmental impact statement did an adequate job reviewing ecological issues for not only next week's lease sale but the next few offshore sales scheduled by the MMS, Judge Beistline said.

The federal agency has already "invested significant time and expense in preparing for the scheduled sales," Beistline said in his ruling, which was signed Thursday and obtained Friday. "Moreover, the public interest in energy development favors proceeding with the scheduled sales."

A spokeswoman for the MMS's Alaska regional office said agency officials do not know enough yet to make a prediction about the lease sale's outcome.

"We're pleased with the decision, obviously, but we just have to wait and see," said MMS spokeswoman Robin Cacy.

The attorney representing the borough and the whaling commission was not immediately available for comment.