( November 22, 2024, 2:57 PM EST) -- SAN FRANCISCO — The Biden administration has filed a response brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that the delay caused by a temporary halt of the hydraulic fracturing lease program in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska was “reasonable and necessary to ensure the program’s compliance with” the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), adding that Congress imposed no specific deadlines for lease sales in the Tax Act....