-----Original Message-----
From: Emilie Surruscol Alaska Wilderness League Staff
FYI - This press release went out last night. We won the Chukchi Lease
Sale 193 case!
July 21, 2010
Contact:
Erik Grafe, Earthjustice (907) 277-2540
Caroline Cannon, Native Village of Point Hope (907) 368-9005; (907)
830-2727 George Edwardson, Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope (907)
852-3746 Kristina Johnson, Sierra Club (415) 977-5619 Carole Holley,
Pacific Environment (907) 306-1180 Rebecca Noblin, Center for Biological
Diversity (907) 274-1110 Beth Peluso, Audubon Alaska (907) 276-7034 Betsy
Beardsley, Alaska Wilderness League (907) 830-0184 Michael LeVine, Oceana
(907) 723-0136 Sierra Weaver, Defenders of Wildlife (202) 772-3274
Federal Court Halts Oil and Gas Activities Under Chukchi Sea Lease Sale
Need for further analysis of missing information tops reasons for halt
Juneau, AK - A federal court Wednesday afternoon ordered all activities
under Lease Sale 193 in the Chukchi Sea off the north coast of Alaska
halted pending further environmental review by the Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management, Enforcement, and Regulation, formerly the Minerals Management
Service.
The court determined that the agency failed to meet its obligation under
the law to analyze the importance of missing basic scientific information
about the Chukchi Sea and verify whether it could obtain the information
prior to offering leases in the sea. The court also faulted the agency
for failing to analyze the potential impacts of possible natural gas
development from the lease sale. In light of today's decision, Secretary
Salazar should fundamentally reexamine the decision to offer leases in
the Chukchi Sea.
Earthjustice represented the Native Village of Point Hope, City of Point
Hope, Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, Alaska Wilderness League,
Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, National Audubon
Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, Northern Alaska Environmental
Center, Oceana, Pacific Environment, Resisting Environmental Destruction
on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL), Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society and
World Wildlife Fund in a challenge to the lease sale in federal court in
2008.
The Minerals Management Service approved oil and gas drilling leases in
the heart of the Chukchi Sea without adequately analyzing the potential
impacts of the sale. The court's decision shines a spotlight on the need
for adequate scientific data before opening sensitive areas of the ocean
to risky oil and gas activities. The danger of committing our ocean to
risky oil and gas activities without full environmental review is
highlighted by the ongoing tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Chukchi Sea is home to sensitive populations of endangered polar
bears, bowhead whales, and spectacled and Steller's eiders, among many
other species of fish and wildlife. The bounty of the Chukchi Sea is at
the heart of the subsistence culture practiced by native Inupiat
communities.
Despite the significance and sensitivity of the Arctic Ocean, there is a
profound lack of basic knowledge about the sea and the wildlife that
inhabits it. Data gaps exist on whale migrations and feeding habits.
There is no reliable population estimate for species of walrus or seals.
No population estimates for polar bears are available for the Chukchi
Sea. Global climate changes are wreaking havoc on sea ice, upon which
many species depend for survival. An oil spill on any scale in this
sensitive and often harsh climate would have devastating impacts. No
technology exists to clean up an oil spill in these Arctic waters.
Reactions on today's decision
"This is an important decision directing the Secretary to consider the
need for more information on the Chukchi Sea. We have long argued that
more science, more data and more research is needed in the sensitive
waters of the Arctic Ocean before oil and gas lease sales or drilling are
allowed occur," said Erik Grafe, an attorney at Earthjustice. "Federal
agencies have a basic obligation under the law to fully assess missing
information about potential impacts of their actions, and to obtain it if
they can, before they act. In this case, the court decided that the
Minerals Management Service did not meet its obligation before it issued
oil and gas leases in the Chukchi Sea."
"We are pleased with this decision. We hope Secretary Salazar will use
this chance to fundamentally reconsider oil and gas leasing in the
Chukchi Sea, our ocean and our garden. We hope the Secretary sees where
we are coming from and honors his commitment to support tribes and our
efforts to carry on the subsistence traditions of our elders. There is
too much at stake to take shortcuts," said Caroline Cannon, President of
the Native Village of Point Hope.
"The past few months have taught us all a painful lesson about the risks
of offshore drilling. An oil spill in the Arctic's broken sea ice would
be impossible to respond to. A spill would be the nail in the coffin for
Arctic communities and wildlife like polar bears, which are already
struggling to survive. And where there is offshore drilling, there are
oil spills. This lease sale never should have happened. It was the
product of the same broken system that led to poor oversight of BP's
drilling operations," said Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune.
"This is a victory for both the Arctic environment and for the
communities of Alaska's North Slope. As it has been repeatedly
demonstrated, and now reinforced by the BP tragedy in the Gulf, the
Department of the Interior and the former Minerals Management Service has
failed more often than not at providing the necessary oversight for
decisions related to offshore oil and gas development," said Carole
Holley, Alaska Program Co-Director at Pacific Environment. "We are
hopeful that the federal government will reconsider Chukchi Lease Sale
193, given the irreversible impacts associated with oil and gas
activities in one of the most sensitive regions of the world."
"The legal foundation for drilling in the fragile Chukchi Sea has
crumbled at Secretary Salazar's feet. With one coast of our country
already irrevocably scarred by oil, it is time for the Obama
administration to break with the bad decisions of the past and take
drilling in the Arctic off the table permanently," said Rebecca Noblin,
Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity.
"The Arctic Ocean is one of the most productive but least understood
biological regions in the world. This decision supports the widely
recognized need for sound baseline science before moving forward with
risky development in a sensitive region," said Beth Peluso of Audubon
Alaska.
"Today's decision proves that the entire program for oil and gas
development in the Arctic Ocean is completely flawed and that Lease Sale
193 must be canceled," said Betsy Beardsley, Environmental Justice
Program Director for Alaska Wilderness League. "As the people who have
survived off the bounty of those Arctic waters for thousands of years
have said from the beginning, the federal government has failed us by
allowing risky plans for drilling to proceed. Now that this court and
others have agreed, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar must now take the time
to gather crucial information about this unique, fragile marine
environment and ensure that the Arctic of the future remains a pristine,
abundant place."
"This decision halting new drilling in Alaska's Chukchi Sea represents a
great opportunity for the Obama Administration to take a new look at the
risks of offshore drilling to our oceans, our coasts, and marine
wildlife," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, Executive Vice President of
Defenders of Wildlife. "The Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf has
demonstrated clearly just how risky offshore oil drilling can be, and the
risks in the remote and wild Arctic Ocean are simply too great to take."
"We have had to go to court to force a conversation about the Arctic, the
lack of baseline science, and response and rescue capabilities," said
Michael LeVine, Pacific Senior Counsel for Oceana. "Hopefully, now
communities and others will have a seat at the table when these decisions
are made about the Chukchi Sea."
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