|
Lawsuit aims to stall NPR-A development Environmental groups sue Interior over proposed leasing adjacent to Teshekpuk Lake; lease sale planned in late September 2006 Wesley Loy Anchorage Daily News
A coalition of environmental groups on March 10 sued the Interior Department in federal court in Juneau in an effort to block expanded oil and gas exploration in the northeast corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The suit, which builds on a preliminary suit the groups filed a year ago, concerns the government’s decision in January to allow drillers to lease previously closed acreage on the shoulder of Teshekpuk Lake, one of the state’s largest lakes and a magnet for thousands of migratory geese. The area also is considered one of the petroleum reserve’s most promising areas for oil and gas discoveries.
The groups contend the Bureau of Land Management, an Interior agency that acts as landlord for the Indiana-sized reserve, violated the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws in failing to properly analyze the potential impacts of oil and gas activity on the wildlife-rich tundra.
The plaintiffs are the National Audubon Society, Alaska Wilderness League, Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Sierra Club and The Wilderness Society.
Defendants include Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who resigned March 10 after five years in the job. Closures ended in January In January, the Bush administration said it planned to end long-standing closures for the tundra north and east of the lake, giving drillers a chance to find and produce an estimated 2 billion barrels of oil and 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas needed for the nation’s energy security. The action makes 389,000 new acres available for leasing.
The BLM said its leasing plan includes a raft of protections for the region’s wildlife, including migratory black brant, threatened spectacled and Steller’s eiders and caribou.
The environmental groups, however, contend the agency paid inadequate attention to the potential for industrial sprawl including roads, pipelines and air strips that could chop up a unique Arctic haven for animals of great importance to subsistence hunters.
Henri Bisson, the BLM’s Alaska chief, said March 10 he hadn’t yet read the 18-page lawsuit and couldn’t comment on its specifics. However, he said the agency is confident it can lease the land and still protect wildlife.
“We absolutely plan to defend our decision,” Bisson said.
Jody Weil, a BLM spokeswoman, said the agency plans to hold a lease sale for the Teshekpuk region in late September.
| 