9/13/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Whit Sheard, Pacific Environment, 907-745-4077
Betsy Beardsley, Alaska Wilderness League, 907-830-0184
Faith Gemmill, REDOIL, 907-750-0188
Brendan Cummings, Center for Biological Diversity, 951-768-8301
Deirdre McDonnell, Earthjustice 907-586-2751

9th Circuit Court of Appeals Denies Shell Oil Request to Reconsider Ban on Oil Exploration in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea

San Francisco, CA – Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed an August ruling blocking plans by Shell Offshore Inc. to drill for oil in the Beaufort Sea off the north coast of Alaska. In July and again in August, the Appeals Court issued orders suspending Shell’s exploration plan based on challenges that the plan risks to polar bears and endangered whales. Today's order rejects a request by Shell Offshore Inc. that the Court reconsider its previous rulings. The Court has stopped activity under the three year exploration plan until it can resolve the challenges to the plan and has put the case on a fast track.

A coalition of Native Alaskans and conservation groups had sued to halt the drilling on concerns that such large-scale industrial activities would threaten endangered bowhead whales, polar bears and other marine animals in coastal waters just off the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The groups challenged the permit issued by the federal Mineral Management Service on grounds that the agency failed to conduct proper assessment of environmental impacts.

The August 14th court order that Shell had asked the Court to reconsider concludes that groups challenging the exploration plan approval “have shown a probability of success on the merits” and “the balance of hardships tips sharply in their favor.”

Noise from exploration activities this fall would disturb bowhead whale migration and feeding in the Beaufort. Also at risk from disturbance and potential oil spills are polar bears and a variety of other animals, including the threatened Steller’s and spectacled eiders.

“The costs of drilling in the Beaufort Sea will lay with the local communities of the North Slope. The negative effects to our subsistence way of life will be seen on a daily basis - negative impacts to our quality of life and human and ecological health; therefore, today’s decision is heartening” commented Rosemary Ahtuangaruk, an Inupiat resident of Nuiqsut, a community near the proposed Shell lease area, and member of Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (Redoil).

“The agency’s own scientists have warned that this type of activity could threaten serious impacts to bowhead whale mothers with calves,” said Betsy Beardsley, Alaska Wilderness League.

In addition to endangered bowhead whales, the drilling plan threatens polar bears, beluga whales and the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Robert Thompson, Kaktovik resident and REDOIL member states: “It is a relief that the activities proposed by Shell Oil in the Arctic have been stopped. Shell Oil consistently has not answered our questions. Can oil be cleaned up in the Arctic Ocean if spilled? Our questions about oil toxicity and methods of clean up in broken ice and under ice conditions have also never been answered. Offshore drilling plans and Arctic Refuge development are interrelated issues. It is my hope that the ocean and the land will be saved for future generations of Inupiat.”

Polar bears are at particular risk as their habitat melts away due to global warming. This month Arctic sea ice reached a record low while government scientists released a report predicting polar bears will be extinct in Alaska by mid-century if warming trends continue.

“If polar bears are to survive as the Arctic melts in the face of global warming, we need to protect their critical habitat, not turn it into a polluted industrial zone,” said Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Shell had been granted permission by the MMS to drill as many as four wells this year, some just offshore from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area kept off-limits to major mineral exploration despite continued efforts of the Bush administration to open it up to such activities.

“The court's 'time out' should send a message to the federal government that they can't continue to rubber stamp risky drilling operations in the Arctic Ocean,” said Whit Sheard, Alaska Program Director for Pacific Environment. “This is yet another reason to revisit MMS' reckless decision to sell off over 70 million acres of the Arctic Ocean to oil companies.”

Groups challenging the permit are the Alaska Wilderness League, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pacific Environment, Center for Biological Diversity, and Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (Redoil) and are represented by Earthjustice. The North Slope Borough and Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission have also challenged the drilling plan.

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