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Issues & Action
Action Alerts
Time-out on Offshore Oil and Gas Development
The Chukchi Sea, off the coast of northwest Alaska, is one of the most productive ocean ecosystems in the world. This past February the US Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) held the first of several planned oil and gas lease sales on nearly 30 million acres of the Chukchi—an area about the size of Pennsylvania. This controversial lease sale threatens many Arctic species and the habitat they depend on. Tell your members of Congress to prohibit oil and gas activities in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas until vital questions are answered. Read more about the Chukchi and Audubon’s position.
Write to your members of Congress
In response to the Administration’s rush to open the Chukchi and Beaufort seas to offshore development, Rep. Jay Inslee (WA) and Rep. Maurice Hinchey (NY) introduced The Polar Bear Seas Protection Act (H.R. 6057), and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) introduced a similar bill (S. 2568) in the Senate. These bills take a common sense approach to development in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas of the Arctic Ocean by mandating a time-out on offshore oil and gas development related activities until vital questions are answered and key issues are resolved. These bills would prohibit oil and gas activities in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas until critical habitat is designated for the polar bear, additional research is conducted, potential impacts are better understood, and adequate technologies are developed to clean oil spills in ice-laden waters.
Suggested text:
“I am writing to ask you to cosponsor (H.R. 6057/S. 2568), which would prohibit oil and gas activities in Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi seas until more research is conducted and potential impacts are better understood. We have very little baseline understanding of the biology of this changing seascape, and this is not the time to move forward with oil and gas development. Furthermore, the risks are too high for a devastating oil spill. The Minerals Management Service's own environmental impact statements found at least a 35% chance that drilling in the Chukchi would result in a major spill of more than 1,000 barrels of oil. The Chukchi is important habitat for endangered whales, millions of shorebirds, seabirds, and waterfowl, and half of America’s polar bear population. It is simply not worth the risk.”
Click here to find contact information for your Senators and Representative.
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