THE WOODLANDS, Texas, February 16, 2009 (ENS) – Low-impact oil and gas drilling is the goal of a new collaborative research program announced today by the Houston Advanced Research Center and the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University.

The research targets advanced technologies that can be used to open up environmentally sensitive areas currently off limits to drilling and production.

New systems will be designed to be compatible with environmentally sensitive or off-limits areas such as federal lands in the Western United States, the wetlands of the Gulf Coast, and the Alaskan North Slope.

“We will consider all aspects of energy resource recovery, not only traditional oil and natural gas production methods but also unconventional production, such as natural gas from shale or coal-bed methane,” said Dr. Rich Haut, senior research scientist at the Houston Advanced Research Center and manager of the University/National Laboratories Alliance, established as part of the HARC Environmentally Friendly Drilling Program.

“New technology and monitoring programs can show us how we can better manage precious natural resources while reducing our impact on the environment,” he said.

Haut says low impact drilling technologies might include small footprint drilling rigs, clustered wells with extended reach drilling, roll-out mats instead of permanent roads, and reduced emissions from operations.

Research on ways to develop new oil and gas production in sensitive and fragile areas has been taking place for years. The Environmentally Friendly Drilling program, created in 2005, is supported by the National Energy Technology Laboratory and the energy industry.

An inland platform that may be used to mitigate environmental risks associated with petroleum development in sensitive Arctic areas (Photo courtesy HARC)

The EFD partnership consists of universities, energy producers and service companies, environmental organizations, government agencies and the Argonne and Los Alamos national laboratories.

Environmental organizations involved in the partnership include – The Nature Conservancy, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense, the Clinton Climate Initiative, Conservation International, the Fort Worth Nature Center, the Rocky Mountain Clean Air, and the World Ocean Council.

David Burnett is manager of the Texas A&M Environmentally Friendly Drilling program and director of technology at the Global Petroleum Research Institute within the Texas A&M Engineering Department.

Burnett said the program is developing new low-impact technologies that can reduce the footprint of drilling activities. “For example,” he said, “we are currently examining the use of light-weight drilling rigs with reduced emission engine packages and efficient on-site waste management systems.”

In his view, the Alliance is “a great example of how federal funding of research and development can make important contributions to both energy security and environmental preservation.”

The impact of access roads and drilling pads has been identified by the Environmentally Friendly Drilling Program as one of the major problems to be managed when conducting oil and gas operations in environmentally sensitive areas.

Creative minds are already at work proposing ways to reduce the environmental impact of roadbuilding – energized by the incentive of competing for a cash prize.

The Disappearing Roads competition, sponsored by Halliburton Energy Services, awarded the University of Wyoming team $20,000 last year for a layered mat, roll-out road system and a modular frame design.

The concepts came from the need to minimize soil disruption and wildlife fragmentation from drilling in the upper Green River Valley, Wyoming. Developed in cooperation with advisers from Bureau of Land Management and upstream gas production companies, the U. of Wyoming submission provided testing procedures and engineering evaluations.

The Texas A&M team won $10,000 for its second place plan to transport equipment and materials to drill sites in environmentally protected areas, with a skylift system, similar to aerial tramways used in mining operations, installed via helicopter or airship. Pairing the skylift system with pipelines to transport drilling and production fluids outside the area would minimize the environmental impact, when compared to using a traditional road, the judges agreed.

Dr. Haut at HARC says the goal of the new collaboration is to investigate other cost-effective technologies that may be developed, tested and implemented “to ensure that we can effectively harvest our energy resources in an environmentally sensitive manner, in particular, at sites that are currently restricted or off-limits.”

Click here [sites.google.com] for a current list of participants in the Environmentally Friendly Drilling program.

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By PAUL FOY – February 4 2009 – SALT LAKE CITY

In a high-profile reversal of the Bush administration, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday the government is scrapping the lease of 77 parcels of federal land for oil and gas drilling in Utah’s redrock country.

“In the last weeks in office, the Bush administration rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases near some of our nation’s most precious landscapes in Utah,” Salazar said from Washington in a teleconference call with reporters.

He ordered the Bureau of Land Management, which is part of the Interior Department, to not cash checks from winning bidders for parcels at issue in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups.
The sales were worth $6 million to the government in addition to royalties on any oil or gas production.

“We will take time and a fresh look at these 77 parcels to see if they are appropriate for oil and gas development,” Salazar said.
A federal judge put the sale of the 77 parcels on hold last month until the lawsuit was resolved. Now, Salazar is refusing to sell any of them — at least until the new administration has a chance to take a second look.

Conservation groups promised to press ahead with the lawsuit to challenge long-term management plans that made the sale of the parcels possible in the first place. The plans, governing 7 millions acres of public land in Utah, were approved by the BLM last year.

Among critics of December’s lease auction was Robert Redford, who owns Sundance ski resort and has spent a lifetime on horseback in southern Utah’s canyons.

“I see this announcement as a sign that after eight long years of rapacious greed and backdoor dealings, our government is returning a sense of balance to the way it manages our lands,” Redford, 71, said in a statement Wednesday.

Salazar said some of the lease parcels, totaling about 100,000 acres, are too close to Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Dinosaur National Monument, all in Utah. Other leases taken off the table were on the high cliffs of whitewater sections of the Green River through Desolation Canyon.

Salazar also acted to protect plateaus populated by big game atop Nine Mile Canyon, sometimes called the world’s longest art gallery because of its collection of ancient rock-art panels.
The National Park Service protested the Dec. 19 auction weeks before it was held, and the BLM removed some parcels from the auction list in response.

At first, the BLM was going to auction a parcel so close to Delicate Arch, the signature landmark at Arches park near Moab, drills might have been visible through the center of the 33-foot-wide span. That parcel was 1.3 miles away. It was taken off the auction list under Park Service protest, but the BLM took bids on other drilling parcels within view of Arches, Canyonlands and Dinosaur parks.

The bureau also offered for lease lands in Utah that are largely considered wild even if they don’t have federal protection.
Fifty-five of the contested parcels are in areas proposed for protection under America’s Redrock Wilderness Act, a bill that has lingered in Congress for years without action because of the Utah delegation’s opposition.

“This area in southern Utah is the land of my youth,” said Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., who grew up in Colorado and is co-chairman of the congressional National Parks Caucus. “Its beauty is stunning, its silence is deafening and it is simply no place for an oil derrick.”

Earthjustice, the group that filed the auction lawsuit, estimated the lands in question would produce only an hour and a half of oil for the whole country at current consumption rates.
But those parcels also could have produced clean-burning natural gas, said industry groups, which condemned Salazar’s decision as counter to President Barack Obama’s goal of energy independence.

“We hope today’s decision does not signal the administration is returning to the failed policies of the past, leaving much of America’s vast energy resources locked up while the nation’s demand for energy continues to grow,” Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement Wednesday.

Salazar said he was allowing the lease of 39 other parcels auctioned off in December that were not challenged in the lawsuit.

The BLM is scheduled to hold its next auction in Utah on March 24. It wasn’t known Wednesday what lands might go up for sale next.

“We would hope that Interior will closely scrutinize this sale list and take BLM off autopilot under the Bush administration,” said Steve Bloch, a staff lawyer for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

WASHINGTON, DC, January 19, 2009 (ENS) – At least 110,000 acres of pristine Utah wilderness is temporarily protected from oil and gas companies due to a ruling Saturday night by a federal judge in a case brought by conservationists.

Judge Ricardo Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a temporary restraining order that prevents the Bureau of Land Management from moving forward with these leases.

A coalition of environmental groups led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Wilderness Society, and Earthjustice filed a lawsuit on December 17, 2008 to prevent the leasing of these public lands.

“This ruling is a huge victory in protecting our nation’s pristine wilderness from destruction due to oil and gas drilling,” said Sharon Buccino, senior attorney for NRDC. “We do not need to sacrifice our wild lands to achieve a secure energy future.”

In his ruling, Judge Urbina found that the conservation groups “have shown a likelihood of success on the merits” and that the “‘development of domestic energy resources’ … is far outweighed by the public interest in avoiding irreparable damage to public lands and the environment.”

South Book Cliffs proposed wilderness in Utah is at risk of oil and gas drilling. (Photo by Tom Till courtesy Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance)

The merits of the case will be heard later in 2009. Until that time, the Bureau of Land Management is prohibited from cashing the checks issued for the contested acres of Utah wilderness.

“We’re thrilled with this decision,” said Stephen Bloch, conservation director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “BLM’s attempt to sell these leases just before the Bush administration left office has been showcased for what it really is – a parting gift to the oil and gas industry. Judge Urbina’s decision firmly puts the brakes on these plans.”

The contested areas near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and Nine Mile Canyon include lands that contain the nation’s greatest density of ancient rock art and other cultural resources.

These lands were recently made available to industry through six resource management plans covering three million acres of public lands.

“Under the Bush administration, the Bureau of Land Management pushed through Resource Management Plans that treated some of America’s most sensitive and spectacular public lands as the private playgrounds of the oil and gas companies,” said Bill Hedden, executive director of Grand Canyon Trust.

“Today’s heartening court decision gives these unique places a last second pardon from forever sacrificing their archaeological treasures, pristine air and remote wildness in order to sate only an hour or two of our national addiction to oil and gas,” he said.

“When we begin to allow oil drilling in the backdrop of an icon like Arches National Park, we know something needs to change,” said Sierra Club representative Myke Bybee.

“It’s time to stop handing over our natural treasures just so the oil industry can make more money,” Bybee said. “Instead, we could be investing in efficiency and the kind of clean energy that will benefit all of us and leave our best wild places intact.”

Click here [www.ens-newswire.com] to see previous ENS coverage of this lawsuit.

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Democracy is working. At least that’s the news for now from my friends at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has filed a lawsuit against last-minute Bush Administration plans to lease huge swaths of majestic wilderness in Utah for oil and gas extraction.

Late last night, NRDC and a coalition of environmental and preservation groups filed an agreement with the Bureau of Land Management that could save 100,000 acres of pristine land that are endangered. The deal temporarily prevents the Bureau from issuing leases on 80 contested parcels of Utah wilderness, including land adjacent to national parks, for 30 days (until January 19).

Although the Bureau will go forward with the auction today, based on the agreement it will not issue the contested leases. The delay will give a federal court time to hear the case.
As I’ve written previously, words alone cannot do justice to the beauty of these places, but they do capture the absurdity of the Bush plan. Oil and gas drilling in Desolation Canyon? Industrial development along the meandering Green River? The thought makes one wince.

Utah’s Red Rock country is one of America’s few remaining wilderness treasures . It’s our land, it’s our legacy, but will it still be here for our children and grandchildren?
The Bureau’s agreement has delayed the potential destruction. We will now get our day in court and I know that NRDC, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and their partners will continue to do all they can to protect Utah’s unspoiled landscapes

If you’d like to take action, check out this site and maybe you can help save the Redrocks [bit.ly]

- Robert Redford

WASHINGTON, DC, November 14, 2008 (ENS) – The end of the Bush administration can’t come soon enough for U.S. conservation groups, who believe that the election of Barack Obama has ushered in a “new era of hope” for the environment.

“Eight dismal years of environmental abuse and neglect are now coming to an end,” said Betsy Loyless, the National Audubon Society’s senior vice president for policy.

Loyless joined other conservation leaders in a telephone briefing with reporters on Thursday, outlining their commitment to press President-elect Obama to quickly reverse some of the Bush administration’s controversial environmental policies.

Beach closure following the 2007 Cosco Busan
spill in San Francisco Bay. (Photo by Ingrid Taylar)

The conservation groups urged Obama to swiftly change current federal drilling policies, tackle climate change and strengthen protections for endangered species and public lands.

The Bush administration’s drilling policies “have been slanted dramatically toward the oil industry,” said Mike Daulton, the National Audubon Society’s legislative director.

Daulton criticized President George W. Bush for withdrawing an 18-year executive ban on drilling for oil and natural gas along the outer continental shelf.

Bush lifted the ban in July and also pledged to veto any legislation aimed at reinstating the restrictions. As a result, oil companies may be permitted to drill as close as three miles offshore.

“We now have a policy for our coasts that is unacceptable – a policy of zero protection for our beaches and coastal economies,” Daulton said.
Drought and dam have ruined this land in Oklahoma (Photo by Clinton Steeds)

In addition to restoring the offshore moratorium, conservationists are keen to see a more measured approach to energy production on public lands, said Ann Morgan, vice president of public lands program at The Wilderness Society.

Millions of acres have been leased for oil and gas drilling in the past eight years in sensitive habitats across the nation, she said, and drilling has emerged as “the dominant use of public lands.”

“The Bush agenda for development has trumped land managers’ ability to protect air, water, and wildlife,” Morgan told reporters. “We need reforms that will restore that balance.”

The conservation groups urged Obama to aggressively tackle climate change and to address the impacts of a warming world on wildlife and public lands.

“The natural resources we treasure and rely on for survival are in trouble,” said Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations for Defenders of Wildlife. “Any plan to address global warming must include steps to protect the natural systems that sustain us all.”

Addressing climate change must be a “top priority” of federal natural resource agencies, Dewey said, and the government needs to bolster interagency cooperation and scientific capacity to aid implementation of climate change programs and policies.

Texas rancher Jim Selman shows compacted dirt
that once was green pasture. (Photo by R.M.
Whittaker)

Additional money must be found to implement efforts to limit the affects of climate change on natural resources, Dewey added, suggesting the money could come from revenues from a federal greenhouse gas emissions cap and trade program.

“We have to act now before irreversible damage is done,” Dewey told reporters.

Conservationists are also hoping for a renewed effort to protect endangered species – they contend the administration has slashed funding and undermined protections for imperiled plants and animals.

“Safeguarding wildlife must be a top priority for both the Obama administration and the new Congress,” said John Kostyack, National Wildlife Federation’s executive director. “We need to start recovering species, not simply slowing their extinction.”

The Bush administration has shown “overt hostility” toward the Endangered Species Act, Kostyack said.

Endangered lynx kittens in Colorado (Photo
by Omtatsat3)

“The first step is to reverse those damaging policies,” he said. “But beyond … we need policies to get ahead of the extinction curve.”

Kostyack urged new investments in state management plans along with a renewed focus on science-based judgments and on protections for entire ecosystems.

The issue of climate change must also be a key part of the effort to protect endangered species, he stressed.

“We can no longer ignore the elephant in the room – global warming is already having an impact on wildlife,” Kostyack said.

He pointed out that the latest report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, issued in 2007 estimates that nearly one-third of all plant and animal species are at high risk of extinction from climate change.

“We can’t assume that the future climate will be identical to the past climate,” he said. “That has unfortunately been the case in recent years.”

By J.R. Pegg

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WASHINGTON, DC, September 17, 2008 (ENS) – Legislation to increase domestic energy supplies through expanded offshore drilling and investment in renewable energy and conservation won approval in the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday by a vote of 236-189.

If passed by the Senate and signed by the president, the Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act will allow oil and gas drilling in federal waters more than 100 miles off the coast and provide for drilling between 50-100 miles off the coast at the discretion of individual states.

Senate approval before the November election is considered unlikely.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who has opposed offshore drilling in the past, now supports this bill, which she said Tuesday, “will be significant in ensuring American energy independence and strengthening our national security.”

“This energy legislation is the result of reasonable compromise that will put us on the path toward energy independence by expanding domestic supply, protect consumers with strong action to lower the costs of energy and to protect taxpayers by making Big Oil pay for its fair share of our transition to a clean, renewable energy future, ensure a clean, green future through energy efficiency and conservation, and commit America to renewable energy and help create millions of good-paying green jobs.”

Oil production platform in U.S. waters
(Photo courtesy Minerals Management Service)

“The offshore drilling provisions would result in 85 percent of the total oil available on the Outer Continental Shelf being open for leasing – while still protecting our beaches and critical coastal industries,” Pelosi said.

“It would expand our available oil by at least two billion barrels – nearly four years’ worth of the oil produced offshore in America and enough to power one million cars for 60 years,” she said.

But House Republicans, some of whom sought offshore drilling in a high profile series of speeches during the summer recess, do not support the measure.

House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio called the bill “another ‘no-energy’ energy bill.” He said Monday that the measure “pretends to promote drilling in deep-ocean waters but actually contains zero incentives for coastal states to allow drilling operations.”

Because the House bill cuts states out of any share of royalties that companies would pay on oil and gas produced offshore, even legislators who support offshore drilling doubt that their states will allow it.

Representative Thelma Drake, a Virginia Republican called the bill “cruel” and a “hoax.”

“Pelosi’s bill keeps the federal prohibition on energy production in place for the first 50 miles. It gives the states the option of opening up from 50 to 100 miles for exploration, but does not offer revenue sharing, depriving states like Virginia the incentive to actually opt in,” said Drake.

“Since 88 percent of the known oil and natural gas reserves are inside 50 miles and portions of the OCS [outer continental shelf] beyond 100 miles production may not be economically viable, almost 88 percent of our natural resources would be permanently locked away,” she said.

Pelosi said the measure will “rearrange the financial relationship between the American people, their oil, and Big Oil.”

On September 9, Pelosi said what is needed is “a change of the relationship between our oil, which is owned by the American people, the desire of Big Oil for us to subsidize their drilling, and us not to, the American people not getting the benefit of the profits.”

“So more drilling, no subsidies, and we want our royalties in order to pay for investments in renewable energy resources, make a strong commitment to LIHEAP and the land and conservation fund,” she said.

“And if you oppose that, what are you saying? ‘I’m for drilling and for subsidized Big Oil and I want all of the profits to go to Big Oil,’” Pelosi said.

Texas Democratic Congressman Gene Green, one of the bill’s sponsors said it would “lower energy costs for consumers by releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; increase research, development, and deployment of clean renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies; and invest in critical programs like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, public transportation, and carbon capture and sequestration research.”

The bill establishes renewable energy tax credits and includes $18 billion in tax cuts to encourage green technology development and energy independence. It creates financial incentives for natural gas vehicles and energy efficient homes.

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WASHINGTON, DC, August 4, 2008 (ENS) – A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a proposal to reduce gas prices by opening new areas in the Southeast Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling, while raising taxes on the major oil companies.

At a news conference on Capitol Hill Friday, the self-styled “Gang of 10″ unveiled an $84 billion measure they call the “New Era,” more formally entitled the New Energy Reform Act of 2008.

It would permit producers to explore beyond a 50 mile buffer zone off Florida’s Gulf coast and those of Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, if those states opt in to the deal. It requires all new oil and gas production to be used domestically.

“I believe this effort epitomizes what the United States Senate is all about. Nothing gets done in this body without 60 votes, and you don’t get 60 votes without a true bipartisan effort,” said Senator Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican who spearheaded the measure with Democratic Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota.

Drill rig in the Gulf of Mexico
(Photo by D. Melson, Sr.)

While a simple majority of the 100 senators is enough to pass legislation, 60 votes are necessary to override a presidential veto and secure passage of a law should it be opposed by the president.

“Our country faces a critical challenge because of skyrocketing energy costs. This growing crisis is eating into the budgets of families across North Dakota,” said Senator Conrad. “This is not a Democratic issue, or a Republican issue, it is an issue that affects all of us.”

In an effort to rise above a partisan impasse that has stalled U.S. energy policy as gasoline prices skyrocketed, the New Energy Reform Act would fund the transformation of cars and trucks so that 85 percent of new vehicles on the road would be powered by fuels other than gasoline and petroleum diesel within 20 years.

The bill provides consumer tax credits of up to $7,500 per vehicle to motivate Americans to purchase advanced alternative fuel vehicles and up to $2,500 to retrofit existing vehicles with advanced alternative fuel engines.

It would extend renewable energy, carbon mitigation and energy conservation and efficiency tax incentives, including the production tax credit, through 2012 to spur greater investment in renewables.

The bill provides grants and loan guarantees for the development of coal-to-liquid fuel plants with carbon capture capability. Plants must have lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions below those of the petroleum fuels they replace.

And it supports nuclear energy by increasing staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, providing workforce training, accelerating depreciation for nuclear plants, and supporting research and development on spent fuel recycling to reduce nuclear waste.

Republican presidential hopeful Senator John McCain of Arizona said today that the only way to address the nation’s energy needs is through an “all-of-the-above approach” that uses nuclear power, clean coal technology, and more offshore oil drilling.

Drill rigin the Gulf of Mexico about 60
miles off the Louisiana coast (Photo
by eightylbs)

“Anybody who says we can achieve energy independence without using and increasing these existing energy resources either doesn’t have the experience to understand the challenge we face or isn’t giving the American people some straight talk,” McCain said.

Congress should return from summer recess to deal with the nation’s energy crisis, said McCain, who offered to come off the campaign trail if Congress reconvenes.

Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama of Illinois said today that he welcomes the New Era proposal, which he said avoids “partisan gridlock and special interest influence” and represents “a good faith effort at a new bipartisan beginning.”

“Today’s announcement includes many of the policies I’ve been fighting for during my time in the Senate and over the course of this campaign,” Obama said. “It would repeal tax breaks for oil companies so that we can invest billions in fuel-efficient cars, help our automakers re-tool, and make a genuine commitment to renewable sources of energy like wind power, solar power, and the next generation of clean, affordable biofuels.”

“Like all compromises, it also includes steps that I haven’t always supported,” said Obama. “I remain skeptical that new offshore drilling will bring down gas prices in the short-term or significantly reduce our oil dependence in the long-term, though I do welcome the establishment of a process that will allow us to make future drilling decisions based on science and fact.”

Obama today introduced his own energy plan that would “require oil companies to take a reasonable share of their record-breaking windfall profits and use it to provide direct relief worth $500 for an individual and $1,000 for a married couple.”

Traffic jam in Houston, Texas
(Photo credit unknown)

The rebates would be fully paid for with five years of a windfall profits tax on record oil company profits, he said.

To increase the U.S. gasoline supply and reduce prices that are hovering around $4 per gallon across the country, Obama proposed releasing light crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve now and replacing it later with heavier crude oil that he says is “more suited to our long-term needs.”

Obama’s plan would address global warming. “As a result of climate change,” Obama said, “the polar ice caps are shrinking causing sea levels to rise; extreme weather is wreaking havoc across the globe; droughts are becoming more severe, tropical diseases are migrating north and numerous species are being threatened with extinction.”

His plan includes an economy-wide cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Obama says he would invest $150 billion over 10 years to accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial scale renewable energy, encourage energy efficiency, invest in low emissions coal plants, advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, and begin transition to a new digital electricity grid.

These investments will help the private sector create five million new green jobs, good jobs that cannot be outsourced, he said.

As part of that investment, Obama proposes a “Green Vet Initiative” to assist the more than 837,000 troops who served in Iraq or Afghanistan. It would offer counseling and job placement in the rapidly growing green economy and would work with industry to create career pathways and educational programs.

Obama’s plan drew criticism from his opponent in the presidential race.

McCain said today, “Senator Obama has no plan to address the energy challenges we face as a nation. He has said no to offshore drilling, no to domestic drilling and no to nuclear energy. He has no plan to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

Friends of the Earth Action president Brent Blackwelder said today the environmental group is disappointed that Obama would consider allowing more offshore drilling.

Blackwelder said his group prefers Obama’s own energy plan to the New Era bill proposed by the Gang of Ten.

“The plan Senator Obama is announcing today is a much better approach. While not perfect, Senator Obama’s proposal is a serious response to our nation’s most pressing energy problems. It includes support for plug-in hybrid vehicles, a national renewable electricity standard, and a low carbon fuel standard, among other solutions. Senator Obama should focus on continuing to advocate real solutions and avoid yielding to oil companies and allowing more offshore drilling.”

Other members of the Gang of 10 coalition are: Republicans John Thune of South Dakota, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bob Corker of Tennessee, and Johnny Isakson of Georgia; and Democrats Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

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WASHINGTON, DC, January 17, 2008 (ENS) – Key polar bear habitat should be held off limits to oil and gas drilling until federal wildlife officials have determined whether the species should be listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act, the chair of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming said today.

“Order matters,” said committee chair Ed Markey a Massachusetts Democrat. “You don’t put on your shoes before your socks … and we shouldn’t be selling the drilling rights in this important polar bear habitat before deciding how we are going to protect them.”

Markey convened the hearing in the wake of an announcement on January 7 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that it will delay a decision on whether the polar bear should be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

The delay makes it likely the decision on listing will come after the U.S. Minerals Management Service sells oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, inhabited by some 2,000 polar bears.

Polar bears are increasingly
threatened by shrinking sea ice.
(Photo courtesy USGS)

That is controversial because the plan to open the area to drilling would face greater environmental scrutiny if the polar bear was on the endangered species list.

“The timing of these two decisions leaves the door open for the administration to give Big Oil the rights to this polar bear habitat the moment before the protections for the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act go into effect,” Markey said.

Looming over the controversy is the larger issue of climate change, which scientists predict could have devastating consequences for the polar bear.

A study issued last fall by the U.S. Geological Survey found that two-thirds of the world’s polar bears could disappear by 2050 due to increased sea ice melt caused by rising temperatures. The Chukchi Sea population, which makes up about half the U.S. polar bear population, is included in that estimate.

Concern about the impact of global warming on polar bears prompted the Fish and Wildlife Service last year to consider listing the species. The agency was scheduled to announce its decision on January 9 but instead said it needed a few more weeks to review information on the species.

“In taking this extra time I wanted to make sure that our staff and I had enough time to clearly understand … the reasons why we accepted information we relied upon and why we didn’t,” Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall told the committee. “It’s not just making the decision, it’s making it clear and why.”

Democrats on the panel honed in on the reluctance of the Bush administration to delay the Chukchi Sea lease sale, set for February 6, until after the listing decision has been made.

“There is no excuse for not taking a few more weeks,” said Representative Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat.

Congressman Ed
Markey chairs the
House Select
Committee on Global
Warming. (Photo
courtesy the Select
Committee)

The threat posed to the species by global warming merits strong action to ensure other threats are limited, Markey added.

“In the end man can adapt, but the bear cannot,” he said.

Markey urged Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, who oversees both agencies, to delay the lease sale until the listing decision has been made.

“In the end, if this is not fixed, it is Mr. Kempthorne who is to blame,” Markey said. “I hope he understands the importance of his decision. I fear he does not.”

Markey has introduced legislation to block lease sales in the Chukchi Sea until the Fish and Wildlife Service issues its decision on listing.

Eleven U.S. senators – 10 Democrats and one Independent – sent Kempthorne a letter today requesting a delay in the lease sale.

“The polar bear has become a tragic mascot of the impacts of climate change, but the U.S. government continues to leave it as vulnerable as ever,” said Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and lead author of the letter. “We should be protecting these animals, rather than auctioning off their habitat to the highest bidder.”

There was no word today from Kempthorne on the issue.

At the hearing, the head of the minerals agency sought to assure lawmakers that a framework is in place to protect the polar bear, regardless of whether or not it is afforded the protection of the Endangered Species Act.

“We believe adequate protections exist,” said Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, MMS.

At today’s hearing, second from
left: Randall Luthi, director of
the Minerals Management
Service; third from left Dale
Hall, head of the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (Photo courtesy
Select Committee)

The bear is already protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Luthi told the panel, and MMS has worked closely with wildlife officials to ensure potential harm to the species is mitigated.

He added that there are no plans to delay the lease sale, which covers some 29.7 million acres of waters off northwestern Alaska. MMS estimates the area holds some 15 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Although Luthi acknowledged that his agency estimates a 33 to 50 percent chance of a major oil spill in the region, he downplayed the concern.

“We wouldn’t be proceeding with this sale if we weren’t comfortable that we had enough knowledge, enough data to say that we can adequately see that the polar bear is protected,” he added. “I’m confident we have done all we needed to do.”

The ranking Republican on the committee said he was convinced by Luthi’s assurances.

The scientific evidence indicates “going ahead with the lease will not have a major impact on the habitat of polar bears in this part of the sea across Alaska,” said Representative F. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican.

That drew the ire of Representative Jay Inslee, a Washington Democrat, who argued that such a view ignores the growing evidence that global warming is well underway and already harming the polar bear.

“This is the last chance for the polar bear,” he said. “It is unbelievable to me that people are still adopting the attitude of the ostrich. One million square miles of the Arctic disappeared this summer … stunning the scientific community. This is visual evidence. It is not theoretical, it is not hypothetical. It is gone.”

Inslee pressed Luthi with questions about the leasing plan, noting that the agency would not be able to force compliance with Endangered Species Act requirements for the polar bear if listing is finalized after the lease sales.

“You will have lost the ability to prevent drilling in certain areas,” he said. “Once you issue the leases it is too late to go back and terminate them.”

Luthi agreed that MMS would not have the ability to terminate leases, but said the sale of the leases is “just the first phase.”

Lease holders have to submit a plan for exploration, he said, that must be approved by the Minerals Management Service and reviewed by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Inslee remained unconvinced, saying, “It negligent in the extreme to make this decision without having the declaration made by the other agency.”

“Robert Frost wrote about two roads diverging in the wood, and here we have the Bush administration looking down two roads with regard to the polar bear,” said Chairman Markey.

“Down one road lies the survival of the polar bear and the orderly consideration of oil drilling and global warming and common sense,” he said. “Down the other road, too often traveled by this administration, lies regulatory lunacy and a blatant disregard for moral responsibility.”

Markey urged Secretary Kempthorne and his agency “to choose the Bush administration’s road less traveled and protect the polar bear, and the rest of us, from global warming.”

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