The U.S. Coast Guard began multi-day investigatory hearings on May 20 into Royal Dutch Shell's drilling rig the Kulluk, which went aground near Kodiak Island, Alaska, last New Year’s Eve.
U.S. Representatives Don Young and Doc Hastings have introduced H.R. 1964 in an effort to scrap the Department of the Interior’s recently finalized, comprehensive plan for the western Arctic’s National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the nation’s largest tract of public land.
Despite decades of Americans saying “no” to oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska’s governor has proposed a plan that includes seismic testing and exploratory drilling in the very heart of the refuge – the coastal plain.
In a clear concession that no oil company is a match for Arctic weather, Shell's president Marvin Odum announced on Feb. 27 that Shell will "pause" it's exploratory drilling operations for the year.
But Alaska’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski refused to accept that decision. She and residents of the tiny community of King Cove are fighting to have the decision overturned.
Cover letter to David Hayes, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior, that accompanied The Wilderness Society's economic analysison the Izembek Land Exchange and Road Corridor Draft Environmental Impact Statement. October 22, 2012.
The Wilderness Society and Center for Sustainable Economics economic assessment of the US Fish and Wildlife Service analysis of the proposed Izembek road and land exchange (May 17, 2012). This was distributed throughout the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Department of the Interior.
After years of fighting to protect Alaska’s western Arctic from unrestricted oil drilling, our campaign to protect America’s largest tract of public land has paid off.
