A group of Democratic senators is calling for the Interior
Department to halt future Alaska offshore drilling leases, saying the
president hasn't made the case that drilling in the environmentally sensitive
region is safe.
"Challenges with infrastructure and spill response are unprecedented in
the Arctic's remote, undeveloped region," the senators wrote Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar.
Senators signing the letter this week were Richard Durbin of Illinois,
Barbara Boxer of California, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Patrick Leahy of
Vermont, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. They
questioned the oil spill response capabilities in the Arctic and said there
needs to be a better scientific monitoring plan. They also want more areas off
limits.
The senators urged the Interior Department to remove Arctic offshore
drilling from its 2012-17 leasing program. An Interior Department spokesman
had no response to the letter on Wednesday.
The Obama administration's proposed offshore oil leasing program includes
a pair of potential sales in the Alaska Arctic. That would be a 2016 sale in
the Chukchi Sea and a 2017 sale in the Beaufort Sea.
"We are committed to moving forward with leasing offshore Alaska, and
scheduling those sales later in the program allows for further development of
scientific information on the oil and gas resource potential in these areas
and further study of potential impacts to the environment," Deputy Interior
Secretary David Hayes said when the plan was announced in July.
There's an intensifying global push to harvest the vast energy resources
in Arctic waters, from Alaska to Russia to Greenland. It's hugely
controversial, and the French oil company Total on Wednesday became the first
major driller to speak out against oil exploration in Arctic waters. The
company's chief executive told the London-based Financial Times that the risk
of a spill in a sensitive offshore Arctic area such as Greenland was too
great.
There's already preliminary drilling by Shell on existing leases in the
Arctic waters off Alaska. The Obama administration gave Shell approval to
drill shallow holes but not to go deep enough to actually hit oil. Shell had
hoped to reach oil-bearing geological formations this year but gave up on that
last week when its oil spill containment dome was damaged during testing off
Washington state.
Shell plans to do what shallow drilling it can in the Arctic this fall
and resume its efforts after sea ice is gone next year. Salazar has said Shell
won't get permission to go into oil-bearing formations until its spill
response equipment is ready.
Shell has been slowed by delays getting its oil spill response barge
ready. But Salazar said last week that Shell has shown a commitment to meeting
his department's "rigorous safety, environmental protection and emergency
response" standards for the Arctic.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy
and Natural Resources Committee, says President Barack Obama isn't going far
enough in allowing Arctic drilling.
"The United States has the highest environmental standards and
protections in place for offshore drilling," said Robert Dillon, a spokesman
for Murkowski. "And those have been strengthened since the Deepwater Horizon
and certainly strengthened even further for Arctic drilling."
Dillon said Wednesday that the Obama administration plan doesn't even
guarantee there will be offshore leases in the Arctic over the next five
years. Murkowski is pressing for guaranteed annual lease sales in both the
Chukchi and Beaufort seas. She's introduced a bill that would allow more sales
off Alaska as well as the mid-Atlantic coast and exploration from existing
rigs off Southern California.
Murkowski's bill also would give states money from energy production off
their coasts and has co-sponsors who include both of Virginia's Democratic
senators, Jim Webb and Mark Warner.
