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Environmentalists bristle over rumor of lifting ban on Bristol Bay drilling
By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Word spread like wildfire through Alaska's environmental community Tuesday of alleged Bush administration plans to lift a presidential moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration in the North Aleutian Basin.
The area includes the commercial fishing grounds of Bristol Bay, described by Rick Steiner, a professor with the University of Alaska's marine advisory program, as "the breadbasket of entire Bering Sea."
Reports circulating through environmental groups were that Alaska Governor-elect Sarah Palin, as well as Alaska’s congressional delegation, had "signed off" on the action, Steiner said.
Curtis Smith, press secretary for incoming Gov. Sarah Palin, said he could not confirm Palin's specific actions regarding plans to lift the moratorium.
Smith said that in the past Palin "has said that Cook Inlet was an excellent model for how an offshore development and a delicate marine environment can co-exist. It is something the governor-elect would consider; she would want to learn more about it."
Aaron Saunders, press secretary to Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Nov. 29 that Stevens has a policy on not commenting on speculation and rumor "and at this point all this is is speculation and rumor.
"Senator Stevens has voiced his support for the president to lift the moratorium," Saunders said. "He has been vocal in his support, but we are not in a position to confirm or deny such a rumor (that Bush will actually lift the moratorium)."
The comment period for the U.S. Minerals Management Service's next five-year Outer Continental Shelf lease sale schedule, which includes the option of a North Aleutians Shelf, or Bristol Bay, lease sale, closed Nov. 27.
According to Steiner, the Bush administration plans to lift the moratorium before Palin takes office in early December.
A presidential moratorium, banning exploration and production in the Outer Continental Shelf of the North Aleutian Basin was put in place by President George H.W. Bush in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound in March 1987.
Deborah Williams, president of Alaska Conservation Solutions in Anchorage and a former key Interior Department spokeswoman in Alaska, said lifting the presidential ban would be "a terrible mistake at every level.
"This risks irreplaceable, sustainable resources in a region that already is subject to many adverse impacts from global warming and other stressors," Williams said.
Steiner called the plan to lift the moratorium "the most spectacularly bone-headed policy blunder so far of the Bush administration and the Republican Congress ... About $500 million a year in commercial fishing comes out of here."
Others in Alaska believe oil and gas can be done without harming fisheries or other local resources. The Resource Development Council, of Anchorage, said it is confident offshore leasing, exploration, development and production can occur without significant impacts to the environment, according to Carl Portman, RDC's deputy director.
"The oil and gas industry in Alaska and elsewhere has proven its ability to produce energy in an environmentally safe and efficient manner," RDC said in a Nov. 22 letter to the U.S. Minerals Management Service on the proposed five-year OCS leasing plan.
"OCS development has an outstanding safety and environmental record spanning decades. Development has co-existed with other industries – including fishing – in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and Cook Inlet," the RDC statement said.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com .
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