Center for Biological Diversity: Obama Promised "No New Drilling" But Plans to Drill in Arctic and

[garybeck]

From the Center for Biological Diversity

Dear Gary,


He may have won votes with his campaign promises of "no new drilling," but last week President Obama outdid good old George W. Bush with his new Oil Addiction Plan for America. The Obama administration's plan begins with exploring for oil this summer on illegal leases in the Arctic Ocean and continues its path of destruction with a host of new offshore oil and gas leases throughout the United States in the coming years, including in the Arctic.

The Arctic is already paying the price for our addiction to oil and simply cannot handle more drilling. The area Obama wants to open up to exploratory drilling this summer is home to threatened polar bears, endangered bowhead whales, beluga whales, walrus, seals, threatened spectacled and Steller's eiders, countless other birds, and more than 100 species of fish. Many of these species are already losing their habitat and food to global warming and ocean acidification. A single oil spill in this fragile environment could spell catastrophe for the entire Arctic ecosystem.

While President Obama had the foresight to remove Alaska's Bristol Bay from the current drilling plan because of its unique marine resources, the Chukchi and Beaufort seas are just as important and equally fragile and should receive the same level of protection.

Please take action now to hold President Obama to his promise of no new drilling.

Take Action Page:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2946


Sample Letter:

Subject: No Drilling in the Arctic

I write to comment on the Department of the Interior's new Outer Continental Shelf Preliminary Revised Oil and Gas Leasing Program 2007 - 2012 (revised program) announced by President Barack Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on March 31. My comments specifically focus on the plan's impacts on the Arctic Ocean.

I commend the removal of Bristol Bay from the revised program. As home to one of the world's richest fisheries and habitat for the highly endangered north pacific right whale, Bristol Bay is a national treasure that must be protected. However, I am very disappointed that President Obama's proposal would allow harmful exploratory drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas to move forward this summer.

Like Bristol Bay, the Chukchi and Beaufort seas are both biologically rich and extremely fragile. They are home to America's only populations of threatened polar bears, Pacific walrus, and many ice seal species. These iconic species are quickly losing their sea-ice habitat to global warming. It defies logic to open up this fragile, melting environment to dirty, industrial oil and gas development that will only add to the global warming imperiling the Arctic.

Furthermore, I believe the Chukchi leases being explored were issued illegally and should therefore be revoked. You are correct that the Chukchi and Beaufort seas warrant further study, but conducting studies while allowing exploration to proceed is irrational. In order to truly protect the people and environment of the Arctic, you must not allow exploration and development of the current leases in the Arctic.

Thank you.

Please take action by May 3, 2010.

Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
1-866-357-3349
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

[Ian David]

1. First of all, he made no such promise. Secondly, nobody will drill ANY of those new leases.

The oil companies aren't drilling any of their new offshore leases they already had.

They're not going to drill these new ones, either.

However, they get to keep these new leases on their books as an appreciating asset.

[garybeck]

2. I called the Center for a reference on the quote.

They're going to call me back. I'll let you know what I find out.

FYI/BTW, Gore is against the plan too.

[Arctic Dave]

4. Wrong. Shell has the go ahead for drilling in the Chukchi Sea.

They are scheduled to start this summer after being set back last summer.

[Ian David]

5. Won't happen. n/t

[pinto]

3. How Oil and Gas Leases Work ($ background info, NPR interview)

How Oil and Gas Leases Work

April 1, 2010 President Obama announced Wednesday that he will open parts of the country's coastline to offshore oil and gas drilling. John Lowe, professor of energy law at Southern Methodist University, says how much the states get from the lease depends on the state and where the lease is located.
Copyright © 2010 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

After yesterday's White House announcement on offshore drilling, we wondered who gets the money from offshore leases - the federal government or the states.

So for the answer to that and other questions, we've called upon law Professor John Lowe of Southern Methodist University. He's the author of "Oil and Gas Law in a Nutshell."

Welcome to the program.

Professor JOHN LOWE (Southern Methodist University): Thank you very much.

SIEGEL: And tell me first, if a company bids on a lease to drill offshore and gets the lease, to whom does he pay his rent?

Prof. LOWE: Well, it depends where that lease is located. We have a fairly complicated structure of federal statutes that basically gives most of the states the right to income from leases within three nautical miles of the edge of their land and then gives them a share of the lease revenues that go to the federal government.

Twenty-seven and a half percent of the revenues that go to the federal government come back to the states for leases that are within another three nautical miles from the edge of the three-nautical mile limit from the shoreline. And then the Gulf Coast states, after Rita and Katrina, cut a special deal and they get 50 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf royalties.

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