 |
 nder grassroots and courtroom pressure, the Bush Administration has announced that it will postpone oil and gas leasing in most of the Teshekpuk Lake area of Alaska's Western Arctic Reserve for a decade. Opening this pristine breeding ground for migratory birds and caribou to immediate oil and gas development had been a leading priority of the administration's energy plan of 2001. "This long-awaited reversal is a milestone in our campaign to block Big Oil from destroying one of the most important tundra wetland systems on the planet," said Chuck Clusen, director of NRDC's Alaska Project.
In recent years, NRDC Members and online activists have pressured the Bush Administration to follow the example of four previous administrations and ban toxic oil and gas drilling in this irreplaceable sanctuary for the legendary Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd, the threatened polar bear and more than a million migratory birds. Turning this BioGem into an industrial web of oil rigs, drill pads, roads and pipelines would disturb tens of thousands of vulnerable molting geese, pregnant caribou cows and newborn caribou calves.
Eighty-seven percent of the northeastern portion of the Western Arctic Reserve has already been handed over to the oil industry. Nonetheless, the Bush Administration announced a plan two years ago to lease every last acre of the fragile Teshekpuk Lake area -- defying more than 200,000 citizen comments, warnings from biologists and wildlife managers, and objections from Alaska Natives on the North Slope. In response, NRDC raced to court with Earthjustice and other partner groups and blocked a lease sale in the area. During the next stage of our campaign, we will be urging Congress to grant permanent protection to the entire Teshekpuk Lake area and other special places in the reserve.
|
|
|
|
|
|
“This long-awaited reversal is a milestone in our campaign to block Big Oil from destroying one of the most important tundra wetland systems on the planet.”
|
|
|
|
