Anchorage Daily News

Conservation and Alaska Native groups sued the federal government Thursday, seeking to stop a petroleum lease sale off Northwest Alaska.

The groups claim the Minerals Management Service environmental review was flawed and did not fairly evaluate potential effects on wildlife.

They say the federal government has ignored changing conditions in the Arctic Ocean, including record low summer sea ice last year, that already stress polar bears, walrus, beluga whales, gray whales and seals.

"The Chukchi Sea is an ecologically rich frontier environment, and it is changing rapidly due to global warming," said Stan Senner, Audubon Alaska executive director. "We barely know this changing seascape, and this is not the time to move forward with a massive lease sale."

Minerals Management Service spokesman Gary Strasburg said the agency is reviewing the suit.

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, condemned the action.

"Today's lawsuit is the first of an endless series of court challenges and appeals the national environmental organizations have been planning in their goal of using the polar bear issue for much larger purposes and goals," he said.

The lawsuit does not seek an injunction to block the lease sale, set for Wednesday in Anchorage, said Earthjustice attorney Eric Jorgensen, but asks the court to declare leases invalid if they were granted improperly.

"We're hoping the secretary chooses not to go forward with the lease sale in the face of the challenge," Jorgensen said. U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., on Tuesday introduced legislation to prohibit oil and gas exploration in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas until the full effect on polar bear populations is understood.

The groups claim the agency went forward despite gaps in wildlife information on walrus, seal and fish populations and bowhead and gray whale migration and feeding patterns. They say MMS based its environmental review on a single offshore field producing a billion barrels of oil, and did not consider the likelihood of additional fields. The review doesn't analyze the possibility of tankers taking oil to market through the Chukchi, the lawsuit said, and understates the effects of submersible "air guns" that fire shots of compressed air into water to survey the seabed geology.

Steve Oomittuk, mayor of Point Hope, said his community opposes any activity that endangers their way of life.

"This is our garden, our identity, our livelihood," Oomittuk said. "Without it we would not be who we are today. Even at this present day and time the animals from these waters shelter, clothe and feed us."

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