TAKE ACTION! No New Leases In The Arctic Ocean from EARTHJUSTICE 24MAR11

PLEASE participate in this campaign to prevent oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, the government is accepting comments until 30MAR11. Click the link to go to the page to submit your comments......

TAKE ACTION! No New Leases In The Arctic Ocean
	Sec. Salazar is looking to the public for input on where and when to drill for oil in our oceans for the next 5 years. Please tell the Interior Department: The Arctic Ocean should not be considered for drilling!
As the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster approaches, the Department of the Interior is in the midst of planning where and when to drill for oil in our oceans for the next five years. Millions of acres of our outer continental shelf are already leased to oil companies, and now the administration is deciding what additional areas to open up for drilling. One of the places in which Interior is considering unleashing drilling is the Arctic Ocean, a remote, fragile region—home to polar bears, whales, walrus, seals among many others—that we know very little about and that is already under tremendous stress due to climate change. Right now, Secretary Salazar is looking to the public for input on these decisions. Please take action now and make sure your voice is heard! Tell the Interior Department that the Arctic Ocean should not be considered for drilling when there are such large information gaps in science and oil spill response. It should not be included in Interior's leasing plan. Last year, the Gulf spill tragically demonstrated that offshore drilling is a risky business, and it is essential that this risk be considered when deciding whether to open new areas to leasing. Drilling in the ocean puts entire ecosystems at risk, particularly in places like the Arctic, where icy, stormy and remote conditions would make it would be impossible to clean up a large oil spill were one to occur. The Arctic Ocean is also one of the least understood places on earth. Without basic science about the region, it is not possible to assess, or manage, the effects of industrial activity there. Add to this that the region is undergoing rapid climate change, and it is clear that there should be no new drilling here. Please tell Secretary Salazar to heed the warnings of the President's Oil Spill Commission and be cautious in the Arctic. Until we have a better understanding of the region and can fully clean up a large oil spill there if it occurs, Secretary Salazar should not offer additional oil and gas leases in the Arctic. Instead, the Secretary should use the next five years to undertake a comprehensive scientific study of the area to understand the basic ecology of the Arctic Ocean, how it is shifting due to climate change, and what effects oil and gas drilling would have on the region's wildlife and people. How to Take Action Please submit your individual public comment through the Interior Department's official public comment form. Click on the button below to access the official public comment form. Or, copy and paste this link into your browser: http://ocs5yeareis.anl.gov/involve/comments Choose your privacy preference, and enter your information. (Only your first and last name are required.) Enter your comment. If you would like to use our sample comment, please consider prefacing the comment with a personalized note, expressing why this issue is important to you: RE: Hold No New Lease Sales in the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea I am encouraged by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE)'s decision to take a deliberate and fully informed approach to the scoping process for the 2012-2017 Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program. As a part of this informed approach, it must be understood that oil and gas activities on the Arctic OCS present unique and unknown risks. The lack of scientific information, the lack of effective spill prevention and response capability for the Arctic Ocean, and the potentially significant impacts of oil and gas activity on wildlife and subsistence practices make additional leasing inappropriate at this time. First, we lack baseline science necessary to make informed Arctic Ocean leasing decisions. In particular, more scientific analysis is needed to understand how species utilize Arctic habitat and function in the larger Arctic ecosystem, and how industrial development will affect those species and the ecosystem, especially in the face of climate change. The President's National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling said scientific data gaps should be filled before making decisions about where and when to drill in frontier areas like the Arctic Ocean. Secretary Salazar has himself directed United States Geological Society to conduct a gap analysis. These are encouraging steps, but a meaningful scientific analysis will require time. The Secretary should use the next five years to obtain missing science needed to effectively manage the Arctic Ocean. He should not offer further oil and gas leases in the region during this time. Second, spill response capacity is inadequate in the Arctic. The President's Commission's report confirmed that both the government and industry failed to fully understand or prepare for a large spill. If a similar spill were to occur in the Arctic Ocean it would be catastrophic. Also specific to the Arctic, the Commission wrote that Interior must ensure that companies do in fact have the response capabilities they state, and recommended increasing the Coast Guard's capacity in the Arctic. In addition, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen has clearly stated that cleaning up a spill Arctic would be a major challenge. Experts all agree: we do not have the ability to clean up an oil spill in the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean. To avoid irreversible impacts to marine life and the surrounding ecosystem of the Arctic, I urge you to exclude the Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea planning areas, including Hope Basin, from the 2012-17 leasing schedule. Thank you for considering my comment. Click on the "Submit Comment" button at the bottom of the form, and your comment will be delivered. Thank you for taking the time to make sure that your voice is heard! Drop us a note at action@earthjustice.org to let us know that you took action! To get started, click on the button below: — Earthjustice Because the earth needs a good lawyer

©2011 Earthjustice | 426 17th Street, 6th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612 | 510-550-6700 | action@earthjustice.org

TAKE ACTION: Prevent an Arctic Oil Spill from EARTHJUSTICE 10NOV10

THE bush administration was all about giving corporate America whatever they wanted, resulting in many court cases brought by environmental groups. The Obama administration, at times, is not much better...and so we are forced to fight the bush administration approval of oil and gas drilling leases in the Chukchi Sea, off the Alaskan coast. Please participate in this action from EarthJustice calling for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) to redo their analysis of the environmental impact of drilling in the Arctic.

TAKE ACTION! Arctic Drilling: Look Before You Leap!
	A large oil spill in the remote, icy waters of the Arctic Ocean's Chukchi Sea could spell disaster for endangered species: Rushing to drill is simply unacceptable!
Dear Craig, Just five months ago, an oil spill erupted in the Gulf of Mexico, dumping millions of gallons of oil into ocean waters. Government officials are still piecing the puzzle together to determine the systemic failures that led to the spill and to ensure a spill like the Deepwater Horizon never happens again. But even though those studies have not been completed, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), is moving forward with oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean as if the spill had never occurred. This summer, a Federal court directed BOEMRE to redo its analysis of the environmental impacts of a massive Bush-era oil and gas lease sale in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska. But just two months later, BOEMRE has now issued a draft document that leaves unanswered hundreds of questions about the impacts of drilling in the Arctic Ocean and the potential threat of a spill in those waters. We do know that a large oil spill in the remote, icy waters of the Arctic Ocean's Chukchi Sea could spell disaster for endangered whales, threatened polar bears, walrus, seals, sea birds, migratory birds, fish and other species that live in these waters. But, as BOEMRE admits, we know so little about some species in the area that we wouldn't even know what was lost in the event of a spill. The agency must curtail its rush to drill in these waters. Much more science needs to be reviewed before any decision on leasing and drilling in the Arctic Ocean is made. If we have learned anything from the Gulf spill, it is that we should study the potential impacts before we proceed with drilling. Tell BOEMRE that rushing to drill in the Arctic Ocean without reviewing all the available science and impacts on species is simply unacceptable. Federal regulators need to look at the science before they make the leap to drill. — Earthjustice Because the earth needs a good lawyer

©2010 Earthjustice | 426 17th Street, 6th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612 | 510-550-6700 | action@earthjustice.org

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Photo Credit: Top: One of the most recognizable faces of climate change, polar bears must swim longer distances to reach solid sea ice as warmer temperatures create larger stretches of open water. If current warming trends continue, scientists estimate that polar bears may become extinct from most of their range in less than 100 years. Beaufort Sea, Alaska. © Florian Schulz / visionsofthewild.com. Bottom: Things are changing rapidly in the Arctic. Oil companies are planning offshore oil development in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, two key marine habitats in the Arctic.These oil platforms are what we could expect to see in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas if oil development projects proceed. Cook Inlet, Alaska. © Florian Schulz / visionsofthewild.com.

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