NEWS ARCHIVE - FEBRUARY 2005

Take a Walk on the Wild Side

When the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was created a little more than four decades ago, the aim was to preserve, intact, what one of the original planners called a "completely undisturbed" cross-section of northeastern Alaska's spectacular mountains, rivers and tundra. Ever since, oil companies have been eager to tap the rich formations they believe lie under its ecologically fragile coastal plain. This spring, the struggle between conservationists and developers over the nearly 20-million-acre refuge promises to heat up as Congress considers an energy bill that would open it for exploration and drilling.

Read the New York Times Editorial

Big Oil Steps Aside in Battle Over Arctic

Once allied, the [Bush] administration and the oil industry are now far apart on the issue [of drilling in the arctic refuge]. The major oil companies are largely uninterested in drilling in the refuge, skeptical about the potential there. Even the plan's most optimistic backers agree that any oil from the refuge would meet only a tiny fraction of America's needs.

Read the New York Times Article

Group petitions to list polar bears as threatened species

A conservation group filed a formal petition Wednesday seeking to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Polar bears could become extinct by the end of the century because their sea ice habitat is melting away due to global warming, contends Kassie Siegel, lead author of the 154-page petition submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity...

The petition cites global warming as the primary threat to polar bears, but also lists oil and gas development, high levels of contaminants such as PCBs and overhunting of some populations.

Read More and Learn More about Polar Bears

More Than 1,000 Scientists Confirm Drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Will Harm Wildlife 

More than 1,000 leading U.S. and Canadian scientists called on President Bush today to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling. In a letter to the President, the scientists questioned assertions that oil could be safely extracted from the Refuge and urged President Bush to "support permanent protection of the coastal plain’s significant wildlife and wilderness values."

Read More and View the Advertisement about the Scientist Letter
in Congress Daily

President's Budget Calls for Drilling

The president's budget proposal calls for leasing the National Arctic Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain - the biological heart of the Refuge - for oil and gas drilling. Using wildly speculative calculations, the President's proposal claims that lease sales in the Refuge will generate $2.4 billion. Generating this much money would only happen if oil companies paid more than 10 times per acre what they've been willing to pay for any lease on Alaska's North Slope in the last 15 years! 

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Sen. Snowe Urges Senate Budget Committee to Not Use Potential Arctic Refuge Earnings in Drafting This Year's Budget 

The office of Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, issued the following press release:

Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) today urged the Senate Budget Committee to draft a budget that does not rely on the assumption of revenues generated from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Sen. Snowe has long fought drilling in ANWR and has urged a greater use of renewable fuels and improve fuel efficiency standards to better meet the nation's energy needs. Efforts in the Senate to allow for drilling in ANWR have consistently failed in recent years.

Snowe believes that while it is imperative that the Congress openly debate the nation's energy policy, it must not be through the budgetary process. Snowe lead four of her Republican colleagues, including Senators Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Susan Collins (R-ME), and John McCain (R-AZ) in sending a letter to the Budget Committee...

"It appears to be a great leap of faith to suggest that these companies would bid on refuge leases at the rates assumed by refuge drilling proponents," the letter continued. "During the last two decades, oil companies have, on average, been willing to bid little more than $50.00 per acre for petroleum leasing rights on Alaska's North Slope, of which the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a part. The Administration's last two proposed budgets estimated that companies would pay $2.4 billion to lease 400,000 to 600,000 acres in the first two lease sales on the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain. Since these projections would mean that the oil companies would have to pay an average of $4,000.00 to $6,000.00 per acre, we believe the projected revenues appear to fall far short of realistic leasing figures. Accordingly, we strongly believe that the nation's budget should not be founded, even in part, on such speculative and unrealistic revenue projections."

Defenders Speaks Out at ANWR Rally

Congressman Markey (D-MA), the lead sponsor of the Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act of 2005 in the House of Representatives, with Defenders' Arctic Lobbyist Lydia Weiss at the 2/2/05 introduction of the bill.

Read the Defenders of Wildlife Press Release

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