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Bush Administration’s Answer to BP Oils Spills and Shutdown: More Drilling in Alaska Fragile Teskekpuk Lake Area Up For Oil Leasing Anchorage, AK -- Following closely on the heels of the largest oil spill in North Slope history and the recent pipeline shutdown in Prudhoe Bay, the Bush administration today formally announced a Sept. 27th oil and gas lease sale for portions of the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska, including 100 percent of the irreplaceable wildlife habitat around Teshekpuk Lake. "The latest discovery by BP of severe pipeline corrosion on Alaska’s North Slope is a reminder that oil drilling is a dirty and destructive business that doesn't belong in environmentally sensitive areas like Teshekpuk Lake," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director. "The oil industry has certainly not earned the credentials to go into a fragile area like Teshekpuk Lake. Yet the Bush administration appears blind to mounting evidence of the perils of oil drilling." Under the Bush administration plan, the entire Teshekpuk Lake area will be open to oil leasing, not a single acre will be dedicated to conservation, and one of North America’s best remaining waterfowl habitats will be fragmented by roads, pipelines, air strips, gravel mines and industrial sprawl. "This is a shortsighted decision that places efforts to conserve waterfowl for future generations at risk," said Bart Semcer, the Sierra Club’s Fish and Wildlife Policy Specialist in Washington, DC. "If initiatives like the North American Waterfowl Management Plan are going to succeed, public lands like those around Teshekpuk Lake need to be conserved as vigorously as partnerships on private land." The recent oil spill and pipeline shutdown underscore the need to break America's oil addiction and embrace smart energy solutions that promise a cheaper, smarter, cleaner and more reliable energy future. Making our cars and trucks go farther on a gallon of gas, increasing efficiency standards for homes and businesses and harnessing the power of the wind and sun would mean we wouldn't have to worry about corroding pipelines or oil spills and American families and businesses would save money. The history of Alaska’s North Slope drilling is a history of oil spills and environmental destruction.The Prudhoe Bay oil fields and Trans-Alaska Pipeline have caused an average of 504 spills annually on the North Slope since 1996, more than one spill each day, according to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC). This shutdown comes shortly after of the single largest oil spill ever on Alaska's North Slope, when a corroded BP pipe dumped 267,000 gallons of oil onto the frozen tundra. BP also recently was forced to shut down 12 oil wells after whistleblowers revealed that more than 50 wells, most of which are in the Prudhoe Bay area, were leaking. The Teshekpuk Lake area is one of unparalleled big game and waterfowl habitat. One in four of the world’s population of Pacific black brant utilizes the area. Approximately 37,000 black brant, 30 percent of the entire population, utilized the Teshekpuk Lake area for molting in 2001. Other waterfowl that rely on the area include lesser snow geese, white-fronted geese and long-tailed duck that find critical nesting and molting habitat in the Lake’s environs. Spectacled and Steller’s eiders, both listed as "threatened species" under the federal Endangered Species Act, use the area for nesting. Big game species found in the area include the 45,000-member Teshekpuk Lake Caribou Herd that provides a subsistence hunting base for the remote communities of Nuiqsut, Barrow, Atqasuk and Wainwright as well as sport hunting opportunities. |
