Associated Press
Environmental groups are condemning a government plan to open sea floor off the northwest coast of Alaska to petroleum leases, saying the decision was based on incomplete information and seriously threatens already burdened arctic species.
The U.S. Minerals Management Agency planned the sale in the Chukchi Sea without taking into account changes in the Arctic brought on by global warming, and the agency proposed insufficient protections for polar bears, walrus, whales, and other species that could be harmed by drilling rigs or spills, according to the groups.
The lease sale in an area nearly 46,000 square miles (120,000 square kilometers) big—slightly smaller than the state of Pennsylvania—was planned without information as basic as the polar bear and walrus populations, said Pamela A. Miller, Arctic coordinator with Northern Alaska Environmental Center.
The lease sale is among the largest acreage offered in the Alaska region.
"The Minerals Management Service is required to have preleasing baseline data sufficient to determine the post-leasing impacts of the oil and gas activities that will occur," Miller said. "They simply do not have that."
The MMS announced it would hold a lease sale on February 6 in Anchorage for the ocean floor on the outer continental shelf of the Chukchi Sea, the body of water that begins north of the Bering Strait and stretches between northwest Alaska and the northern coast of the Russian Far East. (See a map of the area.)
The MMS is a branch of the Interior Department. Among its stated aims is the management of ocean energy and mineral resources on the outer continental shelf.
"A Good Balance"
The sale in February would be the first federal OCS oil and gas lease sale in the Chukchi Sea since 1991. The agency estimates the area contains 15 billion barrels of conventionally recoverable oil and 77 trillion cubic feet (2.2 trillion cubic meters) of conventionally recoverable natural gas.
MMS director Randall Luthi said the agency took steps to protect wildlife.
"MMS funds a robust environmental studies program to monitor the effects of industry activity in the OCS, including more than 40 ongoing Arctic-specific studies," Luthi said. "Following up on a workshop attended by over 100 scientists and stakeholders, we are inaugurating a new suite of research for the Chukchi Sea to further monitor marine mammals, other communities, hydrocarbons, and subsistence uses."
The sale is backed by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and community and tribal leaders, he said.
