Bush lease plan is a rush job

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Andrew Halcro

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Rebecca Noblin

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The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, America's Arctic Ocean, together with the Northern Bering Sea, make up one of the most abundant marine ecosystems in the world. This region is the lifeblood of Alaska Native coastal communities. Climate change is now putting immense pressure on this unique area and its wildlife.

Despite this, the Bush administration aggressively pushed a plan to massively expand offshore oil drilling in Alaska, including Bristol Bay and the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. They moved ahead without adequate scientific studies and analysis to understand the ecosystems and anticipate the potential consequences of development.

Impacts from global warming are already affecting Arctic marine life like polar bears, and an oil spill could tip the balance against them. Federal experts have indicated that there is a 50/50 chance that a large oil spill will happen in the Arctic Ocean, and currently there is no proven technology available to clean up an oil spill in the volatile Arctic sea ice environment.

Fortunately, the Obama administration has decided to take another look. The Interior Department should impose a "time out" on all potentially harmful activity offshore while critical information is gathered and a comprehensive scientific energy plan can be developed.

-- Trish Rolfe

Sierra Club

Anchorage

More oil would help pipeline

Decisions made by the Secretary will influence the future of the trans-Alaska pipeline. TAPS and the energy it delivers to the American people now face special challenges due to lower throughput, as production from existing fields declines.

At its peak, the pipeline was used to transport 2.1 million barrels of oil. Today, that number is less than 740,000 barrels.

Lower throughput means lower crude temperatures, requiring large amounts of new investment and more frequent pigging and other maintenance activities to ensure continued safe operation.

Based on historical rates of decline, we will be operating at 500,000 barrels per day by 2015, years before the first oil is transported from the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. TAPS was not designed to move oil at throughput rates below 500,000 barrels per day for a prolonged period, just as your car was not designed to idle for long periods of time.

Without assurance that leases are moving forward, we will make decisions based on declining production and transform TAPS into a low-throughput pipeline -- one that cannot handle the large volumes of oil projected in the Chukchi and Beaufort.

Offshore areas in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas are to date just sparsely explored, yet are forecast to yield robust oil production. Alyeska enthusiastically supports including regular oil and gas lease sales in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

-- Kevin Hostler, President and CEO

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company

Anchorage

Endangered species are at risk

Not only does offshore oil development threaten Alaska's oceans with industrial noise, increased human activity, and the increased possibility of another catastrophic oil spill, it also directly contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions that are destroying sea ice habitat. For example, under the Bush Administration's five-year plan for offshore oil development 2007-2012, more than 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide would be emitted over the life of the program -- a huge contribution to greenhouse gases.

Unfortunately, under the Bush administration's midnight endangered species regulations, federal agencies are forced to turn a blind eye to climate change and its impacts on polar bears and other ice-dependent species. We cannot protect Alaska's amazing oceans and the animals and people who depend upon them without addressing climate change and the rapid melting of sea ice habitat. And to address climate change, we need the full protections of the Endangered Species Act.

Luckily, the FY 09 Omnibus Appropriations Act specifically grants Secretary Salazar additional authority to repeal the unlawful Bush endangered species rules. We urge the new Interior Secretary to rescind these illegal Bush rules and to phase out damaging fossil fuel development in Alaska's Outer Continental Shelf.

-- Rebecca Noblin, staff attorney

Center for Biological Diversity

Anchorage

Energy security begins at home

Federal waters in Alaska have been one of the few places where offshore leases have been offered and exploration pursued in the last ten years. However development has been slowed by legal wrangling and environmental opposition. Shell's exploration in the Beaufort Sea has been stymied by court actions, costing millions in lost productivity while stranding an armada of ships ready to get to work.

The prospect of future delays could adversely impact the future Alaska lease sales in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, as well as a North Aleutian Basin offering. But, in a larger sense, these initial moves reveal an Obama Administration that does not recognize that access to resources is a critical part of our national energy debate.

To wean ourselves off our massive dependence on foreign oil means we must open more areas to development. We can't talk tough about not being subject to pressure from Middle East sheiks and South American dictators, and then not face the necessity of producing more oil and gas here at home.

While most would agree that renewable energy holds great potential, even with technological advances in wind, water, solar, and geothermal, the U.S. economy still runs on oil and gas. By 2030, renewables are estimated to supply under 10 percent of domestic energy leaving us reliant on oil and gas to supply the vast majority of our energy needs.

Let's hope we can convince Secretary Salazar that Alaska can aid America's economic recovery with offshore and onshore drilling opportunities that will create high-paying jobs and revenues for government while decreasing our reliance on foreign sources of oil.

-- Andrew Halcro, former independent candidate for governor

Anchorage

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