AR-News: (US) Environmentalists Blast Alaska Oil Plan

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Environmentalists Blast Alaska Oil Plan

By RACHEL D'ORO
.c The Associated Press 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A Bush administration plan to open almost 9 million 
acres to oil and gas development in Alaska is ill-conceived and misleading, 
threatening sensitive havens for migratory birds and other wildlife, 
environmentalists say.

``It's never enough for the Bush administration,'' Cindy Shogan, executive 
director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said Friday. ``They won't be happy 
until every acre in America's arctic is a wasteland filled with oil, pipelines 
and roads.''

The Interior Department's oil and gas leasing plan targets 8.8 million acres 
at the northwest corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in the North 
Slope.

Officials with the agency's Bureau of Land Management said restrictions would 
``protect water quality, vegetation, wetlands, fish and wildlife habitat, 
subsistence uses and scenic/recreational values.''

State and oil industry officials hailed the plan to expand development of the 
22.5-million acre reserve. A final decision is expected in late December.

``It fits in with what the governor would like to do, develop our oil and gas 
resources,'' said John Manly, a spokesman for Gov. Frank Murkowski. ``The 
administration is pleased that the BLM is moving forward with this program. After 
all, it is a petroleum reserve.''

But critics said the plan ignores dozens of scientists and thousands of 
others who during a public comment period urged a balance between development and 
conservation of untouched wilderness.

Much of the northeastern section already is open to oil and gas exploration, 
but under tight restrictions with some areas fenced off.

The entire reserve is believed to contain between 6 billion and 13 billion 
barrels of oil. But the oil is spread over a wide area and would be costly to 
recover, said Chuck Clusen, director of the Alaska lands project for the Natural 
Resources Defense Council.

``The U.S. has only 3 percent of the world oil reserves. There's no way we 
can drill our way to independence,'' Clusen said. ``We need to wean ourselves 
off oil, not destroy our natural heritage.''

The plan calls for deferred leasing on about 1.5 million acres near the 
Inupiat Eskimo village of Wainwright for a decade to see if more environmental 
studies are needed. It also designates study areas for caribou and birds, and 
protects another 1.5 million acres along the coast and some lakes and rivers.

Such measures are misleading, environmentalists claimed.

``They are opening this area 100 percent,'' said Eleanor Huffines, Alaska 
regional director for The Wilderness Society. ``The deferrals are just temporary. 
It's a matter of time.''

In Wainwright, many of the 550 residents have mixed feelings about the issue, 
said Lucille Mayer, who has lived in the coastal village most of her 47 years.

While exploration could create jobs, locals worry about the impact on areas 
where they hunt for caribou, walrus, whales, fish and geese. The region also is 
rich in berries and medicinal plants.

``One of our biggest fears is losing our traditional subsistence hunting and 
gathering areas,'' Mayer said.

There's no reason development and subsistence can't co-exist, said Mark 
Hanley, a spokesman for Anadarko Petroleum Corp., a ConocoPhillips partner in 
exploration and potential development on the eastern section of the reserve.

``Eliminating subsistence activities is not the goal,'' Hanley said.       


 
11/22/03 03:13 EST
    

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