GREENLines, Tuesday, April 7, 1999 from GREEN,

NPRA OIL LEASES IMMINENT:  The 4/6 Anchorage Daily News reported the
Bureau of Land Management will offer oil drilling leases in the
National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska on May 5th.  Environmentalists are
waging an ongoing campaign against a plan to open the 23-million-acre
reserve that is also habitat to grizzlies, caribou and millions of
migratory birds.
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From Jane Clark:
Excerpts of an alert and letter I sent last September regarding this issue:

PROTECT WILDERNESS IN ALASKA

(Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt announced the plan to allow oil leasing
and development in the National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A) B Alaska several
months ago.)

This is a wilderness where five million ducks, geese, and shorebirds breed.

Congress set aside this oil reserve in 1923 with the intention to keep it
wild and free until the occurrence of a national energy crisis, in which
case certain parts of it would be opened.  It has remained untouched for
the last 75 years.  This little known wildland located to the west of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the largest expanse of undeveloped
public land left in America.

Babbitt stated that he "tried to strike a balance between oil development
and environmental protection."  His decision proposes to open up 4 million
acres of the reserve's 23 million acres to exploration. The decision not
only gives the oil companies access to the reserve, but opens the door to
future drilling in supposedly "protected" areas.  The Arctic coastal plain
does not recover quickly from man and machines.

"This is no compromise between conservation and development", said Sylvia
Ward, Executive Director of the Northern Center in Fairbanks, Alaska
"Wilderness is precious and increasingly rare".  Not one square inch of the
Reserve is permanently protected from pipelines, roads, oil drilling, or
pollution, yet millions of acres of wilderness and natural wildlife habitat
are now condemned.

"While this is a great deal for big oil companies, it puts in jeopardy many
of Alaska's biological treasures, such as the wild caribou herds, numerous
bird and fish species, moose and brown bears," said Sierra Club
Conservation Director Bruce Hamilton. "There is no compelling case to be
made for why we should sacrifice the unique wilderness and wildlife of this
area.  Oil is cheap and plentiful, and we need to be shifting away from
fossil fuel development and burning, not opening up new areas for the oil
industry to pillage. The Sierra Club believes all prime wildlife areas
should be off limits to leasing.  The basic assumption of needing to strike
a balance should be challenged," he said. "There is no need to lease in
this area at this time."   Oil prices are currently the lowest in two
decades.

This pristine Arctic Wilderness should be a gift to future generations.  It
is time to make sure these internationally significant fish and wildlife
habitats, wild rivers, and wild places get the permanent protection they
deserve!

The Arctic coastal plain does not, cannot, and will not recover quickly
from man and his machines and the destruction that will occur on the
coastal plain if Secretary Babbitt's decision is not reversed.

Here in Iowa, one of only 6 states with no designated Wilderness Areas,
we treasure wilderness as precious and increasingly rare.  We
feel that this compromise that Secretary Babbitt has proposed will be a
loss to all Americans, putting in jeopardy many of Alaska's biological
treasures.

Jane Clark

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