(February 26, 2024, 4:03 PM EST) -- WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Feb. 23 ruled that a federal lease dispute regarding hydraulic fracturing in the Coastal Plain of Alaska within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be transferred to Alaska federal court because even though the lease decision was made by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in Washington, D.C., the fracking proponents who brought the case have “substantial connections” to the District of Alaska....