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Late Breaking News |
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| Date: August 6, 1998 7:09 pm Contact: GreenpeaceUSA Deborah Rephan, Media Department, 202-319-2492 |
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Latest News Releases
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D.O.I. Secretary Babbit Opens Huge Swath Of Arctic Alaska To New Oil Development, Despite White House Rhetoric On Climate Change | ||
| WASHINGTON - August 6 - Despite concerns voiced by the Clinton
Administration about global warming, Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbit will announce
today the opening of approximately 20 percent of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve to
new oil exploration. The entire Reserve encompasses a vast area of rolling foothills, wild
rivers and extensive coastal plain wetlands that provide habitats for waterfowl, caribou,
Arctic peregrine falcons, beluga whales, polar bears and other wildlife. Greenpeace opposes new oil development in Alaska, a region that continues to warm at a rate three times faster than the global average. The Greenpeace vessel m/v Arctic Sunrise is currently operating in Alaskan waters near the Reserve, working with scientists to document the impacts of global warming on the Arctic. "Only 25 percent of the known reserves of coal, oil and gas may be burned if hope to avert dangerous global warming," said Kalee Kreider, US Director of the Greenpeace Global Warming Campaign. "Despite increasing White House rhetoric about the need for energy efficiency and clean renewable energy, it is clear that oil is still king and the President is a pawn," she continued. Although the amount of oil reserves in the area to be leased is unclear, the US government estimates that between approximately $500 million to $2.2 billion US dollars worth of oil is to be found in the area to be leased. The area also is believed to hold substantial reserves of coal and gas. The Reserve was closed to oil leasing until 1980 when Senator Ted Stevens attached a rider to a Department of Interior appropriations bill. The rider opened up the largest block of federally owned land in Alaska and provided that 50 percent of the royalties from any oil extracted go to the State of Alaska (rather than to federal coffers). A peer-reviewed report prepared by Industrial Economics and released by Greenpeace in June 1998 estimated that oil companies operating in the US receive between $5 and $35 billion US dollars in subsidies each year. The last round of leasing held in the 1980's gave six oil companies the vast majority of leases: British Petroleum (BP), Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), Texaco, Chevron, Shell and Exxon. ### |
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