On July 8, 2005, WLF filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit urging the court to affirm a lower court ruling that upheld the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the oil and gas leasing program for the Northwest Planning Area of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A). The Northwest Planning Area consists of 8.8 million acres. WLF argued that the FEIS was more than sufficient to satisfy environmental laws, and noted that the oil and gas production would disturb less than 2,000 acres of the surface area of the Northwest Planning Area. Significant measures would also be taken to mitigate any harm to wildlife and the environment. WLF argued that domestic oil exploration and production are vital to our national security inasmuch as the United States imports over 60 percent of its oil from foreign countries, up from 36 percent after the oil crisis of 1973.