'Nothing stopping them': Environmental groups battle Trump administration and Alaska over federal land transfer

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CN) — The fate of roughly 2 million acres of formerly protected federal land will be decided by a federal court case the state of Alaska is asking a judge to dismiss.

The dispute concerns vast stretches of land alongside the Dalton Highway and Trans-Alaska Pipeline System that have been under Bureau of Land Management control and federally protected from development since 1972.

In February, U.S. Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum revoked the 54-year-old public land orders that had ensured those protections, acting in line with President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order, titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential.”

Burgum wants to give Alaska full possession of these lands to “chart its own course and develop energy, minerals and infrastructure that strengthen America’s security and prosperity,” he said on Feb. 20. In court filings, environmentalist opponents say the move would seriously harm the residents and natural resources of the pristine and iconic region.

U.S. District Judge Aaron Christian Peterson, a recent Trump appointee, gave no indication as to his leanings on either of the two matters debated at Thursday’s hearing: Alaska’s motion to dismiss the case, and the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction to stop the land handover in its tracks.

The first issue quickly turned into a constitutional duel, as Alaska’s lead counsel Ron Opsahl used the 11th Amendment to take a stab at a “sovereign immunity” argument. The amendment prevents states from being federally sued by citizens of other states or foreign nations.

The 10 conservationist plaintiffs include organizations based in Idaho and Washington D.C., respectively, as well as several groups headquartered in Alaska. Plaintiffs’ lead counsel Bridget Psarianos countered that legal principles of “equity and good conscience” should supersede sovereign immunity and said plaintiffs would seek an alternative judicial forum if the case is dismissed.

Psarianos asked Peterson to “at most” drop Alaska as a defendant if he were to decide that the suit violated the 11th Amendment, and to allow proceedings to otherwise continue.

The judge also heard arguments on the environmental groups’ preliminary injunction request, in which they ask the court to prevent the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management from “taking further steps to convey the public lands at issue in this case until after the merits are resolved.”

Paul Turcke, lead counsel for the federal defendants, said the plaintiffs failed to show the land transfer would cause irreparable injury. The Department of Justice attorney claimed 30-day internal review periods and land surveys by BLM and the Interior Department would adequately slow the process down, making an injunction premature and unnecessary.

Turcke compared the plaintiffs’ case to a soufflé — inedible if taken out of the oven and served prematurely. “They need to hit the sweet spot,” he said.

Psarianos rebutted that land surveys had already been conducted on at least 200,000 acres of the Dalton Highway corridor.

“There’s seemingly nothing stopping them from agreeing among themselves,” she said, arguing the federal government could easily bypass additional surveying time.

Peterson did not indicate when he would rule on either issue.