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Help Reverse the Bush Administration's Rush to Drill the Arctic!

  • par: Pacific Environment
  • destinataire: Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar and the Minerals Management Service
On his way out of Washington, former President Bush proposed a plan that would not only give away virtually the entire Arctic Ocean to Big Oil - threatening traditional Alaska Native communities and Arctic wildlife - but would also commit the U.S. to continuing to be a lead cause of global climate change. We, however, have an opportunity to stop these plans. Please urge Ken Salazar, the new Secretary of Interior, and the Minerals Management Service to stop Arctic oil and gas projects and keep the new Administration's commitment to reversing climate change, protecting important ecological areas and respecting the rights of indigenous cultures.

Pacific Environment has witnessed offshore oil and gas development destroy communities, disrupt traditional indigenous cultures, soil beaches and kill countless numbers of birds, marine mammals, fish and other wildlife. The Arctic is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of offshore drilling. With broken sea ice prevalent and waters that are treacherous for oil rigs, pipelines and tankers, the threat of oil spills - for which there is no technology available to clean up - is constant.

We have an opportunity to prevent these catastrophes in our Arctic seas. Join us today in speaking out against offshore drilling in the Arctic.
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Dear Secretary Salazar and Alaska OCS Regional Director,

I am writing to protest proposed plans for offshore oil and gas leasing and drilling in Alaska's Arctic and Bristol Bay. I urge Interior Secretary Salazar and the Minerals Management Service to take a time-out and immediately halt all activities related to these shortsighted and ill-advised plans. Please consider this letter as formal comments on both the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for lease sales 209, 212, 217, and 221 in the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea Planning Areas (Multi-Sale DEIS) and the Proposed Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2010-2015 (Five-Year Program).

Before taking any action to open the Arctic to offshore oil and gas drilling there is an urgent need for a comprehensive management plan that is based on a full scientific assessment of the ecological health of the Arctic ecosystem. This complex and rapidly melting ecosystem is home to America's entire polar bear population as well as endangered bowhead whales, beluga whales, walrus, seals, sea birds and fish. It is also the traditional homelands of Alaska Native peoples who have subsisted upon these living marine resources for millennia.

Currently, the Arctic region is suffering the impacts of global warming like no other region on the planet. The ice that is a vital part of the ecosystem's survival is melting at an alarming rate -- surpassing scientist's predictions. Tundra is receding into the sea. It is socially and ecologically irresponsible to compound this stress to the Arctic. The Bush Administration's hasty plans to zone the Arctic for oil drilling are irresponsible for many reasons: there is no comprehensive management plan to protect the rapidly melting Arctic, no technology exists to clean up oil spills, there is no comprehensive energy plan for the nation, it accelerates global warming, and indigenous community concerns were severely marginalized during the development of the plans. These plans are so unsound that Bush's own Environmental Protection Agency and National Marine Fisheries Service both recommended that they not move forward.

Despite these objections, and over the voices of countless scientists and indigenous community leaders, the Minerals Management Service has leased almost 2.8 million additional acres in the previously undeveloped Chukchi Sea--the heart of polar bear habitat. The Administration also attempted to move forward with drilling in the Beaufort Sea in an area critical to both endangered bowhead whales and the Inupiat communities that subsist upon them.

Instead of addressing these ill-advised actions that have not received proper environmental review and public process, the Minerals Management Service is attempting to immediately push forward four additional lease sales covering 72.5 million acres and a new Five-Year Program that would add two additional lease sales in the Arctic and would also sacrifice the Bering Sea's Bristol Bay--the nation's richest fishing grounds.

Now is the time for the new Administration to address climate change, a responsible energy policy, and protection of the ecologically and culturally rich Arctic environment. Instead of rushing to drill this fragile and poorly-understood ecosystem, we must take a "time out" to truly understand the consequences of our actions.

I urge Secretary Salazar and the Minerals Management Service to halt the Arctic Multi-Sale EIS process and undertake baseline scientific studies in the Arctic, engage in a respectful dialogue with the traditional indigenous communities of Alaska, commit to renewable energy initiatives, and protect sensitive ecological areas such as the Arctic Ocean and Bristol Bay. Furthermore the Five Year Program should reflect these priorities and recognize our need for a "time out" on development in these areas. It is time that the Department of Interior once again fulfills its role to be a responsible steward of our natural heritage.
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Before taking any action to open the Arctic to offshore oil and gas drilling there is an urgent need for a comprehensive management plan that is based on a full scientific assessment of the ecological health of the Arctic ecosystem. This complex and rapidly melting ecosystem is home to America's entire polar bear population as well as endangered bowhead whales, beluga whales, walrus, seals, sea birds and fish. It is also the traditional homelands of Alaska Native peoples who have subsisted upon these living marine resources for millennia. Currently, the Arctic region is suffering the impacts of global warming like no other region on the planet. The ice that is a vital part of the ecosystem's survival is melting at an alarming rate -- surpassing scientist's predictions. Tundra is receding into the sea. It is socially and ecologically irresponsible to compound this stress to the Arctic. The Bush Administration's hasty plans to zone the Arctic for oil drilling are irresponsible for many reasons: there is no comprehensive management plan to protect the rapidly melting Arctic, no technology exists to clean up oil spills, there is no comprehensive energy plan for the nation, it accelerates global warming, and indigenous community concerns were severely marginalized during the development of the plans. These plans are so unsound that Bush's own Environmental Protection Agency and National Marine Fisheries Service both recommended that they not move forward. Despite these objections, and over the voices of countless scientists and indigenous community leaders, the Minerals Management Service has leased almost 2.8 million additional acres in the previously undeveloped Chukchi Sea--the heart of polar bear habitat. The Administration also attempted to move forward with drilling in the Beaufort Sea in an area critical to both endangered bowhead whales and the Inupiat communities that subsist upon them. Instead of addressing these ill-advised actions that have not received proper environmental review and public process, the Minerals Management Service is attempting to immediately push forward four additional lease sales covering 72.5 million acres and a new Five-Year Program that would add two additional lease sales in the Arctic and would also sacrifice the Bering Sea's Bristol Bay--the nation's richest fishing grounds. Now is the time for the new Administration to address climate change, a responsible energy policy, and protection of the ecologically and culturally rich Arctic environment. Instead of rushing to drill this fragile and poorly-understood ecosystem, we must take a "time out" to truly understand the consequences of our actions. I urge Secretary Salazar and the Minerals Management Service to halt the Arctic Multi-Sale EIS process and undertake baseline scientific studies in the Arctic, engage in a respectful dialogue with the traditional indigenous communities of Alaska, commit to renewable energy initiatives, and protect sensitive ecological areas such as the Arctic Ocean and Bristol Bay. Furthermore the Five Year Program should reflect these priorities and recognize our need for a "time out" on development in these areas. It is time that the Department of Interior once again fulfills its role to be a responsible steward of our natural heritage.

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