Court Blocks Drilling in Polar Bear Habitat

A federal appeals court today rejected Bush administration plans to expand offshore drilling in Alaska. The three-judge panel agreed with environmentalists, saying the Bush-era Department of Interior’s plan to open drilling in Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas failed to consider impacts on marine life and the environment.

The court has ordered the Interior Department, now run by Ken Salazar, to conduct a proper analysis of environmental impacts and risks before moving ahead with any plans for offshore drilling in these sensitive areas. The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas are home to approximately one-tenth of the world’s total polar bear population, along with walruses, seals, and whales.

Species already threatened

Species in the area are already under significant threat due to habitat destruction caused by global warming, says William Snape, the attorney who argued the case before the appeals court on behalf of the environmentalists, adding that Salazar has sent “mixed signals” on how he’ll handle offshore drilling in the outer continental shelf. Snape sees the ruling as an opportunity for the Interior Department to protect sensitive areas from offshore drilling:

“We’re seeing a whole ecosystem potentially collapse,” Snape said. “This really is a great opportunity for Salazar to do the right thing.”

The suit was brought by three environmental advocacy groups and the Native Village of Point Hope Alaska, whose inhabitants depend on the wildlife found on the Chukchi Sea for survival.

Sierra Club Lands Director Athan Manuel released the following statement in response to today’s ruling:

President Bush’s plan to drill in the sensitive Chukchi and Beaufort Seas ignored science. The plan didn’t consider the serious threat drilling would pose to America’s polar bears, whales and walruses. We’re pleased to see the court recognize that plans to drill overlooked very serious threats to marine mammals.

Polar bears already face an enormous hurdle as global warming is melting the sea ice where they live and raise their young. The last thing they need is the added threat of oil spills and industrial drilling development.

There is no way to clean up an oil spill in the Arctic’s broken sea ice. It would only take one spill to devastate the area’s marine life and the Alaska native communities who rely on the seas for survival.

We don’t need to open wild and special places like the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas to drilling. Instead, we should be investing in the kind of clean energy that will create good jobs, combat global warming, and position America as a global leader in the new clean energy economy.

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