Forwarded from:

GREENLines, Friday September 26, 2003, Issue 1958

REPORT BELIES DRILLING PROMISES:  Amid a renewed push to open the
Arctic N.W.R. to energy development, a new GAO report finds that "the
government's record of protecting wildlife refuges from environmentally
damaging effects of oil and gas drilling has been spotty" says the
Washington Post 9/24.  According to the report a quarter of the 575
wildlife refuges have been opened to oil and gas production and while
the impact on some has been "negligible," at others there have been
"large scale spills, disruption of wildlife habitat, abandoned
infrastructure and equipment, soil and groundwater contamination, and
other ecological damage."  The USFWS, which manages the refuges,
doesn't even know the number of oil spills that have occurred, has
never assessed cumulative impacts and does not have the resources or
technical expertise to "properly oversee oil and gas activities."

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