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 [log in to unmask] "No one can do everything but everyone can do something" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/