US Interior Dept issues Alaska oil drilling plan
Date: 20-Jan-03
Country: USA
Author: Tom Doggett
In a 1,000-page report, the department's Bureau of Land Management proposed four scenarios for the northwest area of the National Petroleum Reserve, ranging from having no drilling to giving oil companies access to parts of the reserve.
The report addressed three major issues: what lands should be offered for oil and gas leasing, what measures should be developed to protect important surface resources, and what non-oil and gas land allocations should be considered.
BLM will take public comment on the four scenarios for 60 days until March 18 and then present one to Interior Secretary Gale Norton in a final environmental impact statement expected later this year, the official said.
Environmentalists fear that because this area was targeted for development in the Bush administration's energy plan to help reduce U.S. oil imports, it is likely that Norton will eventually call for oil and gas leasing in almost the entire 8.8 million acres (3.6 million hectares) of the reserve's northwest planning area.
If this happens, they contend it would be the largest ever single onshore lease sale of Alaska's Arctic. The reserve's northwest area provides a critical habitat for polar bears, caribou, spotted seals and beluga whales.
"The Bush administration is busy scouring the American landscape for more places to punch holes and set up oil rigs, when instead we should be investing in renewable energy and working to permanently protect special places in the Western Arctic," said Sierra Club lobbyist Melinda Pierce.
Conservationists said that drilling in this region is not the answer to the nation's energy needs.
"Since America possesses only 3 percent of the world's oil resources, but consumes 25 percent of the world's production, we cannot drill our way out of our oil import dependency," said Chuck Clusen, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Alaska Project.
Public meetings will be held on the plan Feb. 12 in Fairbanks and Feb. 13 in Anchorage.
The 23-million-acre (9.3-million-hectare) National Petroleum Reserve - about the size of Indiana - is in the northwest corner of Alaska, and was established in 1923 to provide a source of energy for the nation's military forces. Despite sporadic exploration since the 1940s, there has never been commercial oil development there.
The Clinton administration opened about 4 million acres in the eastern portion of the reserve to oil drilling after a long industry hiatus in the area. But oil companies had been disappointed that certain segments were kept off-limits because of environmental concerns.
The Bush administration is separately pushing to open the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. Republican lawmakers are considering including language in federal budget legislation to allow drilling in ANWR.
