Alaska Inter-Tribal Council : Advocating for Alaska Tribal Governments

Thank you for extending public review of the ill-advised five-year plan for oil and gas development off our nation's coasts for 2010-2015. This plan was developed during the closing days of the scandal-plagued Bush-era Minerals Management Service and represents an aggressive attempt to sell off sensitive public resources. The plan poses irreversible impacts to ocean ecosystems, coastal economies, and Alaska indigenous communities that are already grappling with the profound consequences of climate change.

I urge you to take immediate action to protect our coastlines and the communities that depend upon them. I ask you to direct the Minerals Management Service to remove California and Alaska waters from this plan and halt all current activities in the Arctic Ocean and Bristol Bay while the Obama Administration develops both a comprehensive ocean policy and a comprehensive research and management plan for the Arctic Ocean. These plans should recognize the threats that climate change already poses to this sensitive ecosystem and respect the traditional homelands of Alaska Native peoples who have subsisted upon these living marine resources for millennia.

The Bush Administration’s hasty plans to zone the Arctic for oil drilling are irresponsible for many reasons: there is no comprehensive management plan to protect the rapidly melting Arctic, no technology exists to clean up oil spills, search and rescue capabilities are nonexistent, there is no comprehensive energy plan for the nation, it accelerates global warming, and indigenous community concerns were severely marginalized during the development of the plans. These plans are so unsound that Bush’s own Environmental Protection Agency and National Marine Fisheries Service both recommended that they not move forward.

Now is the time for the new Administration to address climate change, develop a comprehensive national oceans policy, implement a responsible energy policy, and protect America’s coastlines and the ecologically and culturally rich Arctic environment. Instead of rushing to drill fragile and poorly understood ecosystems, we must halt current industrial activities in the Arctic Ocean—including seismic testing and exploratory drilling—to truly understand the consequences of our actions.

I urge you, Secretary Salazar, to cancel ill-advised plans to increase offshore drilling along America’s coastlines, undertake baseline scientific studies in the Arctic Ocean, engage in a respectful and meaningful dialogue with the traditional indigenous communities of Alaska, and protect sensitive ecological areas such as the Arctic Ocean and Bristol Bay. Any five-year program and a new national oceans policy should reflect these priorities. It is time that the Department of Interior once again fulfills its role to be a responsible steward of our natural heritage.

Carl Wassilie