The Bureau of Land Management has announced it will protect special wildlife habitat for caribou, migratory birds, grizzly bears, wolves and polar bears in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which is also known as the Western Arctic Reserve.
On Saturday, December 15, 2012, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar visited New Mexico to listen to the local community that wants to protect Rio Grande del Norte.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it took the action “due to BP’s lack of business integrity,” and that the ban would remain in place until BP proves it can meet federal business standards. That’s good news.
When my career began in the late 1990s, one of my arguments for protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling was that we already had a place for Arctic resource development — a place that actually had “petroleum reserve” as part of its name.
And I was fortunate enough to backpack through this exceptional area in the summer of 2005, enjoying a lovely lunch on a bridge overlooking roaring Thunder Creek.
