Environmental, Native Alaska groups sue to block lease sale

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Fourteen conservation and Alaska Native groups sued the federal government Thursday seeking to stop a petroleum lease sale off Alaska's northwest shore.

The sale would make available for drilling an area nearly the size of Pennsylvania on the outer continental shelf of the Chukchi Sea.

The groups say the Minerals Management Service did not fairly evaluate potential effects on wildlife and the subsistence foods used by Native Alaskans in the region.

Earthjustice attorney Eric Jorgensen says the lawsuit does not seek an injunction to block the sale, scheduled for Wednesday in Anchorage.

The groups hope the agency will postpone the sale in the face of the lawsuit and opposition expressed in Congress.