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Stan Senner
907/276-7034
ssenner@audubon.org

ANCHORAGE, AK, July 16, 2008—The U.S. Department of Interior announced today that 86 percent of the land in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska Northeast Planning Area, or approximately 4 million acres, is available to be leased to oil and gas companies. Today’s decision opens the previously protected T Lake area to oil and gas activities, though it defers leasing in 430,000 acres of land north and east of Teshekpuk Lake - a unique, globally significant wildlife area in the NPR-A - for at least 10 years.

“This decision recognizes the international importance of the Teshekpuk wetlands, which have been protected by every federal administration since Jimmy Carter was President. Even though this action falls short of permanent protection, we are pleased that BLM has now taken this area off the table for oil and gas leasing,” said Stan Senner, executive director of Audubon Alaska.

“We can’t drill our way out of a crisis caused by oil companies, speculators, and foreign countries. Clean energy technologies and energy conservation are a far better answer not only for Teshekpuk Lake but also for our pocketbooks and national security.” Charles Clusen, Natural Resources Defense Council’s director of Alaska projects.

Currently, millions of acres are under lease in the NPR-A , including some sensitive areas offered up previously by the Bush administration, yet the oil companies do not have one well in production.

“The government is bending over backwards to make land available to Big Oil yet they refuse to use what they have,” said Cindy Shogan, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League. “Instead of working to find real solutions to our current gas price crisis, Big Oil is demanding more land and spouting lies about how drilling will bring prices down. Make no mistake about it - this crisis has been brought to you by Big Oil.”

“This decision lifts the immediate threat of leasing so that conservationists, subsistence users, scientists, sportsmen and others can work to secure permanent protection for these internationally significant wetlands, which is part of a balanced approach to oil and gas development in the larger NPRA,” said Eleanor Huffines, Alaska Regional Director for The Wilderness Society.

In September 2006, BLM had scheduled a lease sale in Northeast NPRA that opened previously closed areas around Teshekpuk Lake. This highly controversial action was opposed by many in the conservation community, sportsmen’s organizations, Alaska Native organizations, and others. At the last minute, a federal district judge vacated BLM’s Record of Decision because the agency had failed to consider the cumulative environmental effects of simultaneous leasing programs in Northeast and Northwest NPRA. In August 2007, BLM released a draft SEIS/IAP, which resulted in about 150,000 public comments, mostly in opposition to expanded leasing around Teshekpuk Lake.

The Teshekpuk wetlands provide breeding, molting and resting habitat for more than one million migratory birds. The Teshekpuk wetlands are the most important goose molting habitat in the entire Arctic. The Teshekpuk Lake Caribou Herd is a major resource for subsistence hunters from seven North Slope communities. Conservationists are concerned that oil and gas activities would fragment the landscape, and wildlife populations would decline when faced with the combined effects of widespread oil and gas activity (both on- and offshore) and global warming, which is already affecting the area.

Audubon is celebrating its centennial year of protecting birds and other wildlife and the habitat that supports them. Our national network of community-based nature centers and chapters, scientific and educational programs, and advocacy on behalf of areas sustaining important bird populations, engage millions of people of all ages and backgrounds in positive conservation experiences.

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