The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska provides critical habitat to numerous Arctic species. We are committed to protecting sensitive areas from drilling.
Polar bears, bowhead whales, and native communities are safe from the oil spill devastation that their Gulf coast counterparts are still dealing with. The Obama Administration has announced that they are postponing oil drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off of Alaska’s northern coast until at least 2011. That includes Shell Oil’s plans to do risky exploratory drilling this summer.
The decision comes as part of a larger report on the Deepwater Horizon disaster that was delivered to the President by Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
The Gulf oil spill disaster is continuing to spew oil into the Gulf of Mexico — and the investigation into what went wrong hasn’t been completed. Further drilling in the fragile ecosystem of the Arctic Ocean, could threaten thousands of whales, polar bears, and walruses. Read The Wilderness Society President Bill Meadows’ thoughts about new drilling, hosted on the prestigious National Journal forum.
