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United States decides not to open wetlands for oil & gas drilling
25/Sep/2006: In a major victory to environmentalists, the United States Interior Department has decided not to open the wetlands in Alaska’s western Arctic region to oil and natural gas exploration, as planned earlier.
Earlier this month, the U.S. District court in Alaska, stayed the interior department’s plan to allow oil and natural gas drilling around the Teshekpuk Lake (in the National Petroleum Reserve) on the Arctic coast, saying that the government’s evaluation of the environmental impact of drilling in this area was incorrect.
The interior department will put its plans on hold, to conduct further studies on the impact of drilling in wetlands, but said that the energy exploration will continue on other areas, as planned.
In the filing with the district court the interior department said that the decision to open the wetlands for drilling was in the public interest. The Bureau of Land Management of the interior department had earlier planned to offer 8 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve, to energy companies for oil and natural gas exploration, through a lease, before the decision to withdraw wetlands from this plan was announced.
The National Petroleum Reserve is estimated to hold around 5.9 to13.2 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 39 to 83 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The area around the Teshekpuk Lake could yield two billion barrels of oil, according to an estimate of the Bureau of Land Management, which argued that the energy supply in this region is essential to meet the increasing energy demands in U.S and all necessary steps would be initiated to limit the environmental impact of the drilling.
Environmentalists in the region feel that the government did not analyze the environmental risks of drilling, as much of the wildlife in this region depends on the wetlands for their survival. The district court ruled in favor of the environmentalist but has not made any decision of the Bureau of Land Management’s revised plans for drilling in this region.
The Bush administration is eager to open up the regions near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in the northwest corner of Alaska, for oil and gas exploration, but has failed to convince the Congress for an approval, till now.
K Siva
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