Act for Alaska
Alaska Coalition News
August 2006
Contact me at 10368 Columbus Circle, Bloomington MN 55420 or 952-881-7282
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CONTENTS:
1. BP Pipeline Shutdown – Action: Watch for opportunities to write your
local papers.
2. A special message (and video) from Robert Redford
3. Threat to Teshekpuk Lake (Action - letter to Kempthorne)
4. Arctic House Legislation update
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1. BP neglect causes shutdown of pipeline infrastructure:
You’ve probably seen the massive coverage on this issue in your local
papers. Thank you to all those who wrote Letters-to-the-Editors in
response to this issue! Again we see the imperative urgency to once and
for all protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from a costly and
damaging mistake. The shutdown IS a wake up call – oil drilling is a
dirty business. There is not way to drill in an environmentally friendly
manner.
Please watch your local papers – take advantage of the BP coverage and
write letters in response!
BP Makes a Mess of Prudhoe Bay; Shutdown Ensues
Last month, oil giant BP closed down half of the Prudhoe Bay oil field
when they discovered massive and widespread corrosion in the feeder
pipelines carrying oil to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAPS). While BP has
in the past insisted that their corrosion prevention program was up to
the task of keeping the pipelines safe and leak free, ongoing revelations
show that this is clearly not the case. After the shutdown was announced,
a lawsuit was filed by BP stockholders alleging negligence of the
pipeline and substandard maintenance. In the spring, one of BP's
pipelines ruptured and leaked out 267,000 gallons of oil, the largest oil
spill in north slope history.
Even Alaska's drill-everywhere, pro-oil Senators acknowledged that BP's
failure makes future oil development in places like America's Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge look much less defensible.
The Anchorage Daily News interviewed Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
"And so what has happened with this incident is it has left a very large
blemish on Alaska's record as being a good operator, a good steward of
the resource. We're going to get the resource to you in an
environmentally safe way. And I think we've got a lot of people looking
at us and this operation and saying, 'You said it was going to be done in
an environmentally safe way and if you've got the level of corrosion that
you have, how can you make that claim?' "
In fact, they can't.
Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) also admitted that this was a slap to their
image. "They sold us the fact their processes would perform. And they
didn't."
BP's woes are causing an uproar, not just in the oil markets, but also in
the halls of Congress. The dramatic shutdown of part of Prudhoe Bay has
so far prompted four different committees, two each in the House and
Senate, to announce that they will be holding hearings in September to
investigate the cause of the corrosion.
"The corrosion of British Petroleum’s Alaska pipeline is a travesty of
monumental proportions." said Congressman Mike Fitzpatirck (R-PA). " How
can a company that recently announced a gain of $7.3 billion in net
income over the past three months – a 30 percent increase over last year
– fail to protect its own infrastructure? How can a company as large as
BP, with so much capital to invest in itself allow such a critical part
of its business to go to waste? The corrosion of the BP pipeline is
simply inexcusable and can only be the result of arrogance. This is not
the first spill or breakage in BP’s lack-luster history. A federal
investigation continues to look into an earlier spill in Prudhoe Bay as
well as a refinery explosion that took the lives of 15 BP employees in
Texas last year. With such a spotty record in environmental protection
and the safety of its employees, it is unconscionable that BP would allow
this current pipeline disaster to take place."
The bigger picture question is of course the implications on all current
and future oil development on Alaska's north slope and in other regions.
Oil drilling is dirty and messy, even when it is the "most
environmentally sensitive and cleanest". It's kind of like being the
cleanest pig in the pig-pen; you're still a pig in the mud. Congress
should be using their upcoming hearings to look not only at the causes
and effects of the leaks, but also to highlight the need for cleaner and
more reliable energy sources that don't despoil our special places like
America's Arctic Refuge or Teshekpuk Lake.
2. Senate Poised to act - opening the Arctic Refuge. A note from Robert
Redford:
From: Robert Redford
With the U.S. Senate heading for a showdown vote on the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, I wish I could sit down with you and other supporters to
explain the enormous challenge we face over the next six weeks.
Since I can't do that, I've done the next best thing and recorded a short
video message about the critical situation at hand. I hope you'll watch
this two-
minute video right away.
Then I need you to take an extra step to save the Arctic Refuge by
passing this video on to your friends and colleagues. They need to know
that drilling the
Arctic -- and destroying our natural heritage -- will not save us money
at the pump or make us more secure.
Our goal: to reach into homes across America over the next two weeks, so
that when the make-or-break vote comes after Labor Day, we can spring
into action one million strong and defeat Big Oil's agenda.
Click here to view the video and pass it on to others:
http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/tellafriend.asp
We've got no time to lose.
- Robert Redford
3. Bush Administration Ignores BP Mess, Forges Ahead with More Drilling
in Sensitive Areas: Teshekpuk Lake
While it would be tempting to think that the on-going problems plaguing
the north slope would be reason enough for the Interior Department to at
least delay the Teshekpuk Lake lease sale, on Wednesday, August 23, the
Interior Department printed an announcement in the Federal Register that
they would open the bids for leasing in late September. Oil companies
now have until September 27 to submit sealed bids that will be opened at
that time and awarded several days later. Of course the Secretary of the
Interior can step in at any time and announce a delay or postponement.
“The Secretary has heard from tens of thousands of Americans on this
issue and he will continue to hear strong backlash from this lease sale
announcement," said Natalie Brandon, Alaska Wilderness League's Policy
Director. "We urge the Secretary to listen to the input of Americans
from Alaska and around the county before he makes any final decisions to
give away even more of America’s most sensitive public lands.”
"Literally hundreds of thousands of conservation-minded Americans,
including hunters, birders and Alaska Natives, have weighed in with the
Interior Department to voice their opposition to the department's
misguided drilling plan for the critical wildlife habitat around
Teshekpuk Lake. Within the past few weeks, members of the US House and
Senate have also written to Secretary Kempthorne to ask that Teshekpuk
Lake be protected from oil drilling," said Eleanor Huffines, Alaska
Regional Director of The Wilderness Society. "So far, the Interior
Department has shown little evidence that it has given any weight to
their concerns, opting instead to take its direction from the oil
companies."
"The latest discovery by BP of severe pipeline corrosion on Alaska’s
North Slope is a reminder that oil drilling is a dirty and destructive
business that doesn't belong in environmentally sensitive areas like
Teshekpuk Lake," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director. "The oil
industry has certainly not earned the credentials to go into a fragile
area like Teshekpuk Lake. Yet the Bush administration appears blind to
mounting evidence of the perils of oil drilling."
Not just environmental organization are opposed to the lease. Sixty-six
members of Congress and 19 Senators sent a letter to Interior Secretary
Dirk Kempthorne expressing concern over the proposed lease sale. "We have
serious reservations about the impacts of the proposed Northeast NPR-A
lease sale on the environment and subsistence users. The additional lands
scheduled to be leased in September include some 200,000 acres that even
[Reagan Administration Interior Secretary] James Watt didn't think should
be developed in the area near Teshekpuk Lake," said the Senate letter.
To send a letter to Interior Secretary Kempthorne, go here:
http://www.savetlake.org/?r=8
4. Yet Another Drilling Bill Brought to You by the
"Oil-Drilling-Can-Save-Us-from-Anything" Crowd
As though the Arctic Drilling bill that was passed 225 - 201 in the House
of Representatives earlier this spring were not enough, Representative
Devin Nunes (R-CA) introduced yet another bill to drill for oil in
America's Arctic Refuge. But wait - this one is different! Right? Wrong!
The only thing different about this bill is the new depths of cynicism
to which it sinks. Before we get into the details of HR 5890, the
American-Made Energy Freedom Act (surprisingly, mom and apple pie are not
mentioned in the title), let's take a little trip down memory lane to see
what nefarious plots have been hatched in the past in order to win Big
Oil's holy grail.
In the past 5 years, Big Oil and their cheerleaders in Congress have
tried attaching a drilling provision to the emergency defense spending
bill right after 9/11, they tried to attach it to a bill was supposed to
fund railroad worker pension funds (steelworker pension funds later on in
another attempt), they tried numerous times to attach it to the federal
budget, and in several different versions have tried to include it in the
federal energy bill. In December of 2005, Senator Stevens even tried to
attach it to the bill that funded both Katrina relief and our troops
fighting abroad. If nothing more, our opponents have been quite
inventive in finding new ways to make themselves look desperate and
silly.
The newest gambit by Representative Nunes tries to somehow make oil
drilling in the Arctic Refuge a solution to ...end our addiction to oil.
If it weren't so pathetic, it would be funny, but Representative Nunes'
bill actually tries to fund alternative energy research with money
generated from the oil drilling in America's Arctic Refuge. "Funding
future home-grown energy innovations is what has to be done to produce
lower prices at the pump and increase security in America.” said
Representative Nunes.
Kind of like funding a rehab clinic by selling crack. Except no one
knows how much money would be generated because no one knows how much oil
is there. If Congress is serious about funding alternatives, we're all
for it, but attaching a dumb idea to a good idea doesn't make the dumb
idea any less dumb. Rather than more handouts to Big Oil, Congressman
Nunes should take some of the multi billions of dollars in subsidies away
from the oil companies (really, these are the MOST PROFITABLE companies
in the world, why do we keep giving them tens of billions in subsidies??)
and put it directly toward the alternatives energy research he speaks so
glowingly about in his bill.
Currently this bill is not scheduled for a vote, we will update if
anything changes.
Thanks for taking action and helping to protect America's wild lands in
Alaska!
Finally,
Let me know if you are interested in a Presentation on the Arctic to your
organization, student group, faith group or community. I would be pleased
to come and talk with you about our beautiful treasure in Alaska.
Thank you,
Lois Norrgard
Regional Organizer
Alaska Coalition
952-881-7292
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