Groups sue Bush administration to shield Arctic mammals
Published Tuesday, July 8, 2008
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE -- Two conservation groups are challenging the Bush administration's recent decision to let oil companies unintentionally harass or harm polar bears and walruses in the growing pursuit of fossil fuels off the northwestern Alaska coast.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Anchorage, Pacific Environment and the Center for Biological Diversity alleged that federal officials violated laws designed to protect the animals and their sensitive habitat in the Arctic waters of the Chukchi Sea.
"These regulations set the parameters for how oil exploration will be done in the next five years," said Brendan Cummings, oceans program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "The Chukchi Sea is critical habitat for those animals. For them to survive in the face of global warming, we simply cannot allow oil development there."
Last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to grant legal protection to seven oil companies in the Chukchi over the next five years should they accidentally harm "small numbers" of polar bears or Pacific walruses during the course of drilling and other exploratory activities. The agency is named as a defendant in the suit, along with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.
Fish and Wildlife Service officials believe oil and gas exploration will have a negligible effect on the bear and walrus populations. It is global warming, they say, that will most likely cause the animals' numbers to dwindle.
Under the harassment permits, oil companies are required to report all sightings of polar bears and walrus, said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Bruce Woods. The agency treats such reports as valuable data because research in the remote region is often prohibitively expensive.
"Our biologists feel this regulation program is a valuable conservation tool," Woods said. "The companies have to report every sighting and what measures they took to avoid disturbing the animals and what the response was. They give us information on the location and actions of the animals that we might not otherwise have."
About 2,000 of the 25,000 polar bears in the Arctic live in and around the Chukchi Sea, where the government in February auctioned off oil leases to Shell Oil Co., ConocoPhillips Co., and five other companies for $2.6 billion. Over objections from environmentalists and members of Congress, the sale occurred before the bear was classified as threatened in May.
The groups say the Chukchi is also home to nearly the entire female population of Pacific walrus.
The agency has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court.
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"The companies have to report every sighting and what measures they took to avoid disturbing the animals and what the response was."
Sound like the fox guarding the hen house.
"Fish and Wildlife Service officials believe oil and gas exploration will have a negligible effect on the bear and walrus populations. It is global warming, they say, that will most likely cause the animals' numbers to dwindle."
Whoooeeee, that global warming stuff is turning out to be a real convenient truth, eh? Those nice oil companies are reporting every fuzzy little head they run over. . er, sight, I mean. And they will be glad to tell us about all the nice stuff they are doing to keep the critters safe - it's that bad old global warming that's gonna kill 'em off.
Oh well, the planet will survive. . . albeit with a few less pesky species perhaps. <sarcasm>
I believe all this drilling and exploring is inevitable and all I can say is: I hope the people of the state of Alaska and those whose subsistence livelihoods will be destroyed in the not-so-distant future make the best deal they possibly can for themselves. Go ahead, let Big Oil do what they are going to, but MAKE THEM PAY UP FRONT.
It's Alaska's oil - A FINITE RESOURCE. Can someone tell me why we are just handing it over without demanding the highest dollar value possible? Just because there is a well-orchestrated campaign to scare the American sheeple into believing there's an oil shortage? There is no shortage, sheeple!! The price you are paying at the pump and for petroleum based energy is NOT tied to supply and demand - it's tied to futures speculation and market manipulation! Drilling a million holes and sucking more oil out of the earth isn't going to change the price at the pump!
The oil drilling machiney cause of noise, messy & smelly makes animal go away. native people will be angry because of oil companies
When will this stop. Forty plus years ago while in school we discussed the coming of the new ice age in about seventy five years. This does not seem to be a huge suprise to some of us. For the folks that want to solve this in court I challenge you to come up here and look at what you are trying to protect and the open vastness that the animals can move in to avoid any conflicts. These animals are not stupid, unlike the protectors. We injure and kill more animals with tour groups, sightseeing voyages, and sport hunting than the industries have ever harmed. You litigation happy people need to get a life. If all of you want to help the Arctic Animals stop driving your cars, or buying high dollar furnature, or using plastic products. Sounds stupid right well so are these law suits. Come to this land and see for your self. I challenge you to spend a week out there anywhere. If you survive you will understand.
E. R.
The off shore rigs they are talking about in the Chukchi sea are well over 50 miles off the shoreline. Fish and Wildlife as well as Fish and Game have been studying that area since the 50's. You think they would have some figures to show by now.
National Red-Neck Association and Nascar sue Pacific Environment and the Center for Biological Diversity for misrepresenting intellectual superiority and anti-American behavior.
Wouldn't that be a cool headline?
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