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Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... Latest
Releases
The press releases posted here have been provided to NewsCenter by the one of the many progressive organizations we have selected to participate. If you would like more information about this press release, you should contact the organization directly. |
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| JANUARY
20, 1999 5:19 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Greenpeace USA Deborah Rephan, Media Team 202-319-2492 |
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| Greenpeace Files Suit to Stop Illegal Construction of Ice Roads on Alaska's North Slope | ||||
| FAIRBANKS,
AK - January 20 - Greenpeace went to Superior Court in Fairbanks today to halt the illegal
construction of British Petroleum's Northstar project, the first offshore oil
project in the Arctic Ocean. BP is moving forward with the first part of the
Northstar project without any of the permits required by federal and state law
due to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' improper
"go-ahead".
BP started ice road construction as the first step in its two-year construction timetable, before it had the necessary permits. Ice roads are used to haul gravel six miles over the frozen Beaufort Sea from an onshore mine site near the Kuparuk River. The gravel will be placed in the Beaufort Sea to shore up the manmade Seal Island production facility. "The Alaska Department of Natural Resources jumped the gun when it said BP could start ice road construction for the Northstar project, and BP knows it," said Melanie Duchin, Greenpeace Climate Issues Specialist in Anchorage. "This project has been riddled with problems since its inception, and the fact that BP is trying to start construction before it has all of the required permits shows BP's lack of regard for public process and the environment. It is shameful that the Alaska Department of Resources has overturned the four-year cooperative agency review process and ignored laws designed to protect the public from adverse impacts from this project, simply to meet BP's timetable" said Duchin. BP's Northstar project will be the first project of its kind to use a subsea pipeline for transporting oil from an offshore artificial island to the Trans Alaska Pipeline. The project has been in the works for over four years, and has been subject to numerous delays due to the unproven and dangerous nature of subsea technology in the Arctic. A seven-volume Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) was released last June and revealed substantial flaws, particularly with respect to the inability to clean up oil spills and the cumulative impacts of Northstar to the Arctic marine ecosystem. The DEIS revealed that there is a one in four chance of a large oil spill at some point in the 15-year lifetime of the project. Cleaning up an oil spill in Arctic conditions is next to impossible, especially in broken ice conditions during spring and fall. "BP has shown time and again that it will do just about anything to get Northstar built and pumping oil, and in this case, it has shown a blatant disregard for the law and public process," said Duchin. "If BP truly cared about Alaska, it would cancel the ill-planned Northstar project and redirect its resources to plan a transition away from an oil-based economy. This would not only protect the environment, it would also provide a more stable economy and jobs for the State and for Alaskans, without the threat of layoffs and budget deficits when oil prices take a nose dive. Halting ice road construction is the only responsible step toward showing a regard for the law, the environment and the people of Alaska." Greenpeace is campaigning to halt oil exploration in new oil frontiers such as the Alaskan Arctic and the Northeast Atlantic oceans as the first step toward phasing out fossil fuels and phasing in renewable forms of energy such as solar and wind. Greenpeace is the leading independent organization that uses peaceful and creative activism to protect the global environment. ### |
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