BLM Plan to Open Entire National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to Oil Drilling Hotly Contested
Teshekpuk Lake, the third-largest in Alaska, is a globally significant summer destination for yellow-billed loons, spectacled eiders, tundra swans, and a variety of geese. It is also vital to caribou. Located 150 miles west of the Arctic Refuge, the lake is part of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
In 1998, when the Clinton administration opened 87 percent of the 4.6 million-acre northeastern portion to oil and gas development, Teshekpuk and adjoining acreage were put off-limits in deference to the biological and cultural importance of the area.
But in January 2005 the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) finalized a plan to open 100 percent of the area to oil and gas leasing. Until then, Congress and three Secretaries of the Interior, including James Watt, had deemed the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area worthy of protection. We do not oppose drilling in the reserve, but the most ecologically sensitive areas should be left alone.
The industry cannot proceed until a “record of decision” is issued by BLM. That step was to have occurred in March, but a storm of criticism from scientists, sportsmen, birders, and Natives has succeeded in stalling it. As of press time, the agency has made no announcement about the schedule. One of the most effective critics has been North Slope Borough, which has stressed that industrializing Teshekpuk Lake would seriously threaten the subsistence culture of local Inupiat. We are grateful to the many Wilderness Society members who also have told BLM of their concerns.
Over the summer, BLM started looking into the prospects for developing the southern portion of NPRA, and we expect the eventual plan for that area will turn out to be similarly unbalanced.
For More Information
- Eleanor Huffines, Director, Alaska Regional Office, The Wilderness Society, 907-272-9453
