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LETTERS: One seeks to put area off-limits, another urges drilling.
Published: March 30, 2005
Last Modified: March 30, 2005 at 06:54 AM
A ranking official in the state Department of Natural Resources last month wrote federal officials recommending that the expansion of oil and gas leasing in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska should be restricted, but Gov. Frank Murkowski subsequently wrote a letter that seems more bullish on drilling.
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In a Feb. 28 letter to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which acts as landlord for the petroleum reserve, DNR deputy commissioner Dick LeFebvre recommends the BLM defer leasing in a large region in the northeast reserve important for scores of molting migratory geese. LeFebvre wrote the letter on behalf of DNR as well as the Department of Fish and Game.
But Murkowski, in a March 9 letter to the BLM, wrote that "it is in the best interest of Alaska and the nation to lease the entire northeast section of NPR-A." His letter was signed by DNR Commissioner Tom Irwin and Fish and Game Acting Commissioner Wayne Regelin.
The letters add to the national controversy surrounding the fate of the Indiana-sized petroleum reserve, which is rich in wildlife and might also be rich in oil.
Critics of the BLM's plan to lift Clinton-era restrictions and offer previously closed acreage to drillers contend the governor seems to be trumping concern among agency staffers of the potential risks to geese and other wildlife.
"What I make of it is the letter coming out of the agencies reflected substantive concerns about wildlife, and that wasn't the message the governor wanted to put forward, so he sort of pulled rank and sent another letter," said Stan Senner, executive director of the conservation group Audubon Alaska.
But LeFebvre denied any schism between him, the agencies and the governor's office.
"There's not a bogeyman in here, if that's what you're looking for," he said.
In fact, LeFebvre said not only did he pen the Feb. 28 letter, but he also helped draft the March 9 letter that Murkowski signed.
The purpose of the second letter, LeFebvre said, was to emphasize that the administration as a whole appreciates the BLM's "innovative" leasing plan, which shouldn't hurt wildlife because only 1 percent of the sensitive goose molting grounds north and east of giant Teshekpuk Lake could be affected by gravel drilling pads or other permanent oil development.
The BLM in recent months announced its intention to roll back restrictions imposed under former President Clinton in 1998 and offer virtually all the acreage in the northeast petroleum reserve for lease to oil drillers.
The plan now awaits the signature of Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
Former President Harding set aside the petroleum reserve for its oil potential in 1923. It is remote, with no roads or pipelines, and so far North Slope oil development has centered around Prudhoe Bay, well to the east of the reserve. But oil companies led by Conoco Phillips have leased millions of acres in the reserve, and drillers have discovered oil on its eastern fringe.
Government geologists say the northeast petroleum reserve could hold hundreds of millions of barrels of crude oil important for the nation's energy security.
Norton has received a raft of protests from environmental groups, the North Slope Borough and others who say the BLM plan risks harm to geese, caribou and other wildlife important for subsistence.
BLM officials, however, say they've designed a plan to keep drilling away from major water bodies and caribou migration routes. And they note that oil exploration would occur in winter, when the geese are not around.
LeFebvre's letter asks the BLM to consider a long list of additional protections, including no leasing in the goose molting area north and east of Teshekpuk Lake.
If leasing is allowed there, the letter says, no permanent oil and gas facilities should be allowed in the molting area until goose and caribou disturbance studies are done, until industry technology can be shown to not disrupt molting geese behavior, and until the Federal Aviation Administration and agencies develop a helicopter planning and routing restrictions.
The state supported these conditions in 1998, and the governor himself supported them in the state's official comments to the BLM in August, LeFebvre said.
Murkowski's March 9 letter, however, says fish and wildlife concerns "are adequately addressed" by the BLM leasing plan.
"As governor my role is to weigh social, economic and other factors in addition to environmental issues in deciding what is in the best interests of Alaska and Alaskans," the letter says. "If the only concern was risk-free protection of the fish and wildlife resources, the 200,000 acres north of Teshekpuk Lake arguably should not be leased. However ... other considerations necessarily come into play, such as the great potential for oil and gas production in this area."
Daily News reporter Wesley Loy can be reached at wloy@adn.com or 257-4590.
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