If you voted for Ralph Nada, you voted for this...The
craven Senate Democrats, like Tom Duck-It (D-SD) and
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), have done litte over the past
two years EXCEPT block the most odious of the
_resident's judicial nominees and block his push to
drill in Anwar. That isn't much, but it is more than
Nada or the Greens have done. The Greens? Please
explain running a Green candidate againt Sen. Paul
Wellstone (D-MN)?
Reuters: Clinton-era leasing restrictions were too extreme, said Larry Houle, executive director of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance, an oil field service association. "There was a political agenda being pushed by the stipulations, and it was an anti-development agenda," he said.
Save the Environment, Show Up for Democracy in 2004:
Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1213-03.htm
Published on Saturday, December 13, 2003 by Reuters
Bush Plans Drilling in Untapped Alaska Oil Reserve
by Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Across the western Arctic sprawls
an Indiana-sized land mass dotted with lakes,
populated by migratory birds and other wildlife, and
packed with potential oil riches.
The National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska (NPR-A),
wedged between the foothills of the rugged Brooks
Range and the icy Arctic coastline, is about 120 miles
from the better-known Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
(ANWR).
Teshekpuk Lake, North Slope, Alaska
The BLM may also allow drilling in and around the vast
Teskekpuk Lake, which sits near the Arctic coastline
and is currently off-limits to development. Until now,
its shores were considered too important to birds,
caribou and wildlife to allow oil rigs. (Photo/(c)
1997 Gary Braasch)
The NPR-A was set aside 80 years ago as an energy
storehouse for the U.S. military, but the reserve has
yet to send a barrel of oil to market.
The Bush administration hopes to change that and is
pushing an ambitious strategy for oil development in
the NPR-A as Congress refuses to open drilling in
ANWR.
Plans recently drafted by the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) would open vast stretches of the 23
million-acre NPR-A to new oil drilling and relax
environmental restrictions in other areas where leases
already exist.
With oil development expanding west from Prudhoe Bay,
the focus on the petroleum reserve makes sense, said
Henri Bisson, the BLM's Alaska director. "It's just a
natural progression. The time is right for exploration
in the NPR-A," he said.
The BLM wants to open 8.8 million acres in the
reserve's northwestern third to oil development. That
plan would replace specific regulations -- like those
limiting truck travel over the delicate tundra and
restrictions on drilling in rivers and streams -- with
more general guidelines.
The proposal is cheered by industry backers. They have
high hopes for the reserve, which could hold 5.9
billion to 13.2 billion barrels of oil, according to
government estimates.
"The future of our industry and the future of our
state will really lie in the development of the
NPR-A," Mark Huber, vice president of the oil field
service company Doyon Universal Services, said at a
recent Anchorage public hearing.
But environmentalists have a different view.
A 'LEASE EVERYTHING' STRATEGY
"I don't know whether there is a strategy, other than
"lease everything'," said Stan Senner, director of
Alaska Audubon.
Senner's remark comes as the BLM is proposing to
change environmental safeguards in the reserve's
northeast section to match the more general ones
proposed for the northwest. The northeast section is
where companies have leased nearly 1.5 million acres
for exploration during the past four years.
The BLM may also allow drilling in and around the vast
Teskekpuk Lake, which sits near the Arctic coastline
and is currently off-limits to development. Until now,
its shores were considered too important to birds,
caribou and wildlife to allow oil rigs.
Critics say the BLM is caving to companies pushing to
cut costs. They point to the specifics of the new
rules for the northwest section, such as the allowance
for gravel roads and airstrips if they are "necessary
to carry out exploration more economically" and
drilling in rivers or streams if "it is determined
that there is no feasible or prudent alternative."
"Every single thing can be waived for economic
reasons, which makes it all meaningless," said Eleanor
Huffines of The Wilderness Society.
Geology justifies the proposals, BLM's Bisson said.
Beneath Teshekpuk Lake there may be as much as 2.2
billion barrels of oil, he said. It lies within the
same geologic formation that produced most North Slope
oil discoveries.
A strict interpretation of existing rules, including
mandatory buffers around streams, would make it
difficult to extract some of the oil, he said.
"We have more than sufficient protections to steer
away from sensitive areas," Bisson said. "But we also
have the ability to make an exception if there's no
reasonable alternative. I think it's a mistake to go
into a place and just absolutely say, "no
exceptions'."
Industry supporters like the proposed changes.
Clinton-era leasing restrictions were too extreme,
said Larry Houle, executive director of the Alaska
Support Industry Alliance, an oil field service
association. "There was a political agenda being
pushed by the stipulations, and it was an
anti-development agenda," he said.
Houle, who served on a BLM advisory panel, cited some
examples. One rule bars tundra travel unless there is
12 inches of frozen ground and six inches of snow
cover. Another requires three-mile buffers for
waterways. Instead of such prescriptive mandates, he
said, rules should emphasize performance goals.
Companies could abide by existing rules by using such
techniques as directional drilling, but choose not to,
said Anchorage environmental consultant Pamela Miller.
"If they felt the government was going to hold them to
the stipulations, they probably could figure out a way
to do it. But why should they? It's going to cost them
more money," Miller said.
Inupiat Eskimos of the North Slope also are concerned.
If the BLM decides to drop environmental protections,
"I don't think that Nuiqsut or any other village will
support development in NPR-A," said Thomas Napageak,
an elder from Nuiqsut, the Inupiat village on the
reserve's eastern border.
Copyrighjt 2003 Reuters Ltd
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