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NOAA Raises Red Flags on Aggressive Offshore Drilling Plan
Posted October 13th, 2009 by crsurf
Exclusion Zones, Buffers and Oil Spill Protections Would Scale Back Lease Schedule
WASHINGTON - October 12 - The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration urges that an ambitious lease schedule for oil and gas drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf be dramatically cut back, according to official comments posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). NOAA recommends safeguards for fisheries, marine mammals and coastal populations that would significantly dial down the number and size of offshore tracts offered for exploration and development leasing.
The NOAA comments were filed on September 21, 2009, the comment deadline for the Draft Proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2010-2015 issued by the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS). That plan issued in January reflects the pro-drilling approach of the outgoing Bush administration. It would offer 12 large lease areas (4 in Alaska, 3 in the Atlantic, 2 in the Pacific and 3 in the Gulf of Mexico) covering much of the American OCS.
In its comments, NOAA laid out positions not heard during the Bush years, including:
- Exclusionary zones that would block lease sales in the Northern Aleutians (including Bristol Bay), near shore in the Chukchi Sea, as well as all the proposed Atlantic and Eastern Gulf tracts;
- Buffer zones that would bar drilling "around national marine sanctuaries, Habitat Areas of Particular Concern, Critical Habitat for endangered and threatened species, major fishing grounds and to provide visual buffers to coastal areas dependent upon tourism"; and
- A moratorium on any Arctic Ocean drilling until much better oil spill prevention and response capability is in place. NOAA also contends that MMS understates the expected frequency of and risk from spills, generally, noting aftereffects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita among other factors.
"It is refreshing to hear the voices of marine scientists who were silenced for the past eight years," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization released a stream of suppressed emails and other internal communications about negative effects of noise, invasive species and other effects in Arctic waters that are now reflected in the NOAA comments. "The question now is whether NOAA's precautionary approach will drive federal policy or be run over by Interior."
In February, incoming Interior Secretary Ken Salazar invited public as well as interagency comment on the plan. Salazar has identified "energy independence" as his top priority. In addition to expanded OCS exploration, Salazar is promoting non-conventional energy developments offshore, as well as drilling.
The NOAA comments state that OCS renewable energy planning is vague, lacks baseline resource data, and is not coordinated with oil and gas planning. NOAA also faults the failure to consider impacts from climate change including "shoreline erosion" and sea ice reduction in the Arctic.
Professor Rick Steiner, a marine conservation specialist at the University of Alaska, applauded the NOAA comments. "NOAA's recommendations echo concerns voiced for years by Alaska's Inupiaq people, scientists, and fishermen regarding the real risks of offshore oil. The issue is whether Interior will allow industry to drill anywhere it wants or whether marine ecosystems will be protected from the inherent risks that accompany offshore petroleum drilling."
"To avoid conflict, the Obama White House has thus far straddled the fence without taking firm stands on the underlying elements of a coherent oceans policy," added Ruch, noting that NOAA has, for example, ruled out designation of new national marine sanctuaries or monuments in the Arctic that would preclude drilling. "Decision time is approaching, however. If NOAA's warnings are not heeded Interior's offshore leasing plans will again be ensnared in litigation."
See the MMS Draft Proposed Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2010-2015
Review scientific suppression on Arctic drilling impacts under Bush
Look at NOAA's reluctance to proceed on Arctic sanctuaries
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Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is a national alliance of local state and federal resource professionals. PEER's environmental work is solely directed by the needs of its members. As a consequence, we have the distinct honor of serving resource professionals who daily cast profiles in courage in cubicles across the country.
related article -
DON’T EXPECT NEW MARINE SANCTUARIES UNDER OBAMA — NOAA Chief Says No Plans to Even Begin Considering New Ocean Reserves
Washington, DC — Throwing cold water on hopes for a “sea change” in oceans policy, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration says it has no “plans to initiate an assessment” of potential marine sanctuaries anytime soon, according to correspondence released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Instead, any such decisions will be a “part of a comprehensive review of our Nation’s marine waters” – an interagency process expected to take several years.
The cautionary statements were contained in a September 1, 2009 letter from NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco to Professor Rick Steiner, a noted marine conservation specialist at the University of Alaska, in which she demurred on his suggestion that NOAA undertake the first steps for designating the very first national marine sanctuaries in Alaskan waters, specifically in Unimak Pass and Bering Strait.
Administrator Lubchenco indicated that NOAA had no funds available to explore the possibility of new marine sanctuaries and did not foresee any change “in the immediate future.” Her stance stands in ironic contrast to the prior administration’s record where President Bush designated three new marine national monuments in the Pacific covering more than 150,000 square miles, including the world’s largest ocean reserve. Although President Obama has the same authority under the Antiquities Act to designate new marine national monuments, Dr. Lubchenco’s letter suggests that this option will not be explored.
NOAA’s posture also raises questions as to whether meaningful Arctic Ocean protections are under active consideration. Most of Alaska’s threatened and endangered species are marine species. In many regions sea lions, harbor and fur seals have declined by 80%; sea otters by 60%; and some seabird populations have declined by 90%. Many of Alaska’s apex marine predators contain some of the highest levels of persistent organic pollutants of any animals in the world. Thus far, however, Obama’s NOAA has –
Prof. Steiner points out that Alaska has half the U.S. shoreline, three-fourths of our continental shelf, more marine mammals, seabirds and fish than the rest of the nation combined but still not one marine sanctuary or monument. In his July 30, 2009 letter to Administrator Lubchenco, Prof. Steiner makes the case for these two designations:
“Unimak Pass and Bering Strait host some of the most important migratory corridors for marine wildlife anywhere in the world ocean, and can be looked at as ‘marine ecological gateways.’ Most of the migration of whales, seals, walrus, birds, and fish between these three seas [Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean] pass seasonally through these two restricted marine corridors….”
“Thus far the Obama administration has delivered process without the promise of protection,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, referring to the recently announced White House Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force interim report. “Our worry is that the final inter-agency product will be so belated and compromised that invaluable resources will be irretrievably lost.”
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Read NOAA Administrator’s letter
See Professor Steiner’s initial request
Compare the massive Bush marine sanctuary expansion
View the National Marine Sanctuary System
Scan the new Obama Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force interim report
Examine the U.S. Arctic Policy
Visit Obama Watch: Change We Still Need - the administration’s emerging eco-record