This is just in from Betsy Goll in our Anchorage field office and forwarded
by Vicky Hoover:
Thanks to ALL of you who have written letters to urge the Administration not
to lease this sensitive wetlands habitat area for oil and gas!
Breaking News: Western Arctic's Teshekpuk Lake Gains Temporary Protection
Ruling Finds Interior Shortchanged Environmental Protection for Teshekpuk
Lake; September 27 Lease Sale Postponed Indefinitely
Juneau, AK -- The US District Court for Alaska on September 25th issued a
strongly worded decision that could save the internationally significant
wildlife habitat around Teshekpuk Lake in the Northeast Planning Area of
the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska (NPRA). The court found the
government's environmental analysis violated federal environmental laws.
Today's ruling strikes down the Interior Department's leasing plan for the
area, and prohibits the BLM from proceeding with a planned sale of oil and
gas leases on more than 400,000 acres around the lake. The lease sale was
to have taken place September 27.
In today's decision, US District Judge James Singleton, Jr. found that the
Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) failed to consider
the cumulative environmental impact of widespread oil and gas drilling in
the NPRA, a key point in conservation groups' arguments against the plan to
lease the area around Teshekpuk Lake, enjoins BLM's decision and remands
the matter to the agency for further analysis.
Alaska Native communities near Teshekpuk Lake strongly opposed the federal
plan to allow oil and gas drilling around the lake, which is an important
subsistence hunting and fishing ground. They have been joined by
scientists, sportsmen's groups, other conservationists, and hundreds of
thousands of concerned citizens who have voiced their concerns about the
threat that drilling poses to nesting and molting grounds used by large
populations of geese and other waterfowl and to caribou calving habitat.
This summer, more than 100,000 citizens submitted comments to the Interior
Department this summer demanding protection for vital habitat in the
Teshekpuk Lake area, bringing the total number of pro-conservation comments
to over 300,000 since 2005.
For now, Teshekpuk Lake will not be auctioned to the highest bidder. We
will keep you posted on next steps and how to permanently protect this
special place. This is a positive moment in Alaska conservation, as the
decision today is based on public sentiment, local knowledge and sound
science, not one of political pressure. We hope it sets a trend as
agencies and lawmakers decide the fate of other critical lands in Alaska,
such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
For more info, go to: http://www.sierraclub.org/arctic/western/
_________________
Vicky
Vicky Hoover, Sierra Club
staff, Alaska Task Force
85 Second St., 2nd floor
San Francisco, CA 94105-3459
(415)977-5527
fax:(415)977-5799
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"No one can do everything but everyone can do something"
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