The Obama Administration has proposed opening oil and gas drilling in the Beaufort Sea — threatening half of America's polar bear habitat and the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — home to millions of wild birds and animals. An oil spill in the Beaufort Sea could devastate the coastline of the refuge blanketing it with a thick layer of toxic sludge for decades!
You've seen how the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has devastated dolphin, turtle, and bird populations. Imagine an oil disaster in the frigid, remote Arctic and its impact on wildlife like polar bears, walrus, seals and caribou!
Even in the best circumstances oil companies have shown their oil spill clean-up technology is inadequate to deal with a major disaster. Harsh Arctic conditions would make an oil spill nearly impossible to clean up!
Send the administration a message opposing gas and oil drilling in the Beaufort Sea before the September 12 comment deadline and protect the Arctic!
Nomination for Beaufort Sea Oil and Gas Sale 242 -- BOEM-2014-0017
Dear Acting Director Walter Cruickshank,
While I applaud your agency for seeking public input, I strongly oppose your plans to lease the Beaufort Sea, one of the two Polar Bear Seas, for oil and gas exploration.
The pristine Beaufort is home to many threatened animals, including polar bears and humpback whales, as well as walruses, belugas and numerous other marine mammals. It is adjacent to the extraordinary Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is home to the Alaskan polar bear's favorite onshore denning area. And its coastal shelf is blanketed by Globally Important Bird Areas, home to king eiders, yellow-billed loons and many other species.
It is also extremely vulnerable. Climate change is already wreaking havoc in the Arctic. The region is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe, as average temperatures have risen two-and-a-half degrees over the past 60 years. Storms are becoming more violent, the coastline is eroding and pack ice is shrinking with terrifying speed.
Your own analysis says that oil development comes with a 40 percent chance of a major spill. That would be an unthinkable disaster. Conventional spill response technology has never been successfully tested in the harsh Arctic environment, with its high winds and currents and long dark winters. Shell Oil's series of failures while trying to drill in the Chukchi, the second of the Polar Bear Seas, tells us all we need to know about the risks.
[Your comments will go here]
Again, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to keep the Arctic Ocean off-limits to oil and gas exploration.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
