Published on Monday, July 14, 2008 by Agence France Presse
Bush to Lift Offshore Oil Drilling Ban

WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush will announce Monday he is lifting an executive ban on oil drilling on the US outer continental shelf and urge lawmakers to follow suit, the White House said.

“The president will announce that he has decided to lift the executive ban on oil exploration in America’s outer continental shelf and he will again call on Congress to lift its legislative ban,” said spokeswoman Dana Perino.
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Put Oil Firm Chiefs On Trial, Says Leading Climate Change Scientist

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/22/9816/

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 9, 2008 2:15 PM

CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity
Brendan Cummings, Center for Biological Diversity, (760) 366-2232 x 304
Whit Sheard, Pacific Environment, (907) 982-7095

Lawsuit to Be Filed to Protect Polar Bears from Oil Development and Greenhouse Gases
Offshore Oil Development in Arctic Seas Challenged

SAN FRANCISCO - June 9 - Today two conservation groups formally notified Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne of their intent to file suit under the Endangered Species Act for Secretary Kempthorne’s failure to protect polar bears from oil development in their habitat in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off Alaska.

Polar bears were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act on May 15, 2008 due to the ongoing and projected loss of their sea-ice habitat from global warming. Polar bears in the United States live on and near the seasonally frozen waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas off Alaska. The Bush administration has opened up virtually all of this habitat to leasing by oil companies.

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No joke folx…want to survive & mitigate climate change? Then PROTECT
WILDERNESS AND WILDLIFE!! No exceptions…

ASW

—————————- Original Message —————————-
Subject: BACA NWR MAKES PEER LIST OF AMERICA’S TEN MOST IMPERILED WILDLIFE
REFUGES
From:    “winter ross” <winterross@yahoo.com>
Date:    Wed, June 4, 2008 7:36 pm
To:      “Storm Waters” <stormf5@riseup.net>
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Christine Canaly <slvwater@fairpoint.net> wrote: Date: Sun, 25 May 2008
18:03:20 -0600
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Christine Canaly <slvwater@fairpoint.net>
Subject:
Fwd: BACA NWR MAKES PEER LIST OF AMERICA’S
TEN MOST IMPERILED WILDLIFE REFUGES

Hi folks,

The Baca was recognized by PEER as one of the Nation’s top 10 imperiled
wildlife refuges (see story below).  While this reaffirms the important
work we still have ahead of us, the listing will help us get important
national attention.

Watch for an update on the results of our latest FOIA request in the June
Crestone Eagle.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 29, 2008
4:33 PM

 CONTACT: The Wilderness Society
Dave Slater (202/429-8441); Dave Alberswerth (202/429-2695);
Nada Culver (303/650-5818, ext. 117); Eleanor Huffines (907-272-9453)
 
 
More Than 44 Million Acres Under Lease for Oil and Gas in US
New analyses shows unprecedented drilling boom, tremendous surplus of undrilled leases, and errors in recent BLM oil and gas assessment
 
WASHINGTON, DC - May 29 - More than 44 million acres of public lands are leased for oil and gas development, according to a new Wilderness Society analysis of Interior Department data. The analysis points to an explosion of drilling on federal lands, with 7,124 drilling permits (APDs) issued in 2007, a new record for the Bush Administration. Nationwide, the leasing is outstripping the oil and gas industry’s capacity to drill, as industry is drilling on only a quarter of the leases they hold. [view the detailed analysis here

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2008  9:53 AM

CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337
 
U.S. Trusting Oil Companies to Safeguard Arctic Wildlife
Industry Permit Plans Not Subjected to Required Peer-Review or Monitoring 
 
WASHINGTON, DC - May 15 - Federal agencies issued permits for oil exploration in vast areas of the Arctic Ocean without verifying industry claims or imposing required safeguards against damage to wildlife, according to agency e-mails released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Intense political pressure to speed Arctic leasing coupled with tardy industry submission of any data resulted in official rubber-stamping of permit applications without review or plans for follow-up.

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Something to Celebrate!

BLM Withdraws Proposed Energy Leases in Southern Colorado
The Associated Press

Article Last Updated: 05/02/2008 04:45:41 PM MDT

DENVER—Federal officials are withdrawing most of the proposed oil and gas leases up for sale in a May 8th auction.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said Friday that it will defer offering leases on 144,000 acres out of the original 175,430 acres. The parcels withdrawn are in the Rio National Grande Forest in southern Colorado.

BLM officials say the parcels could be auctioned later. They’ll go over the analysis of the sites with the Forest Service

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2008
1:10 PM

 CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity
Rob Mrowka, Center for Biological Diversity, (702) 249-5821
 
 
Federal Proposal to Open 1.7 Million Acres of Nevada Public Land to Oil and Gas Development Would Worsen Global Climate Change and Imperil Species
 
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - April 28 - Today the Center for Biological Diversity submitted comments urging the federal Bureau of Land Management to scrap its proposal to open 1.7 million acres of public lands in Lander and Nye counties to oil and gas development because the drilling would exacerbate global climate change and further threaten imperiled species.

At the heart of the Center’s complaint is the Bureau’s failure to analyze or even acknowledge the environmental impacts from the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the development and consumption of oil and gas produced from the area, despite the National Environmental Policy Act’s mandate to fully disclose the environmental impacts from federal actions.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 10, 2008
10:56 AM

CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

US Offshore Leasing Premised on Future of Cheap Oil
Planning Assumes $30 a Barrel Oil to Minimize Potential Environmental Impacts

WASHINGTON, DC - April 10 - With prices surging past $112 for a barrel of oil, the federal government is basing its Arctic offshore drilling plans on the assumption that oil will cost only $30 a barrel and not rise beyond $46 a barrel by 2012, according to agency records posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). These vast underestimates were based on old forecasts which the Bush administration refused to update for fear of slowing leases sales in the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 8, 2008
2:35 PM

CONTACT: Defenders of Wildlife
Richard Charter, (707) 696-1363
Sandra Purohit, (202) 772-0250

Offshore Drilling Could Destroy Bristol Bay Fisheries
Defenders of Wildlife Opposes Interior Department Approval of New Leases

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA - April 8 - Today’s announcement by the Department of the Interior inviting offshore oil and gas drilling throughout Alaska’s fishery-rich Bristol Bay could undermine commercial and recreational fishing throughout the region, Defenders of Wildlife warned. It also puts at risk important marine mammal and migratory bird habitat.

“Through thousands of years of careful stewardship, Alaska’s indigenous peoples have maintained the healthy web of life in Bristol Bay. Now the Bush administration is encouraging the oil industry to submit maps showing where they want to drill offshore,” said Richard Charter, a consultant for Defenders of Wildlife. “This is a tragic and high-risk decision destined to ultimately destroy one of America’s only remaining sustainable marine ecosystems.”

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Published on Thursday, April 3, 2008 by The San Francisco Chronicle

Oil Politics Alleged in Polar Bear Decision
by Zachary Coile

Washington - California Sen. Barbara Boxer accused the Bush administration Wednesday of delaying a decision on whether to list the polar bear as an endangered species so it could finish its oil lease sales in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, where one-fifth of the world’s polar bears live.0403 03 1

“The administration went ahead and accepted bids, even though oil and gas activities may disturb polar bears making a den, and even though an oil spill could pose big risks to the polar bear population,” said Boxer, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

The Interior Department has been under fire from environmentalists and lawmakers for missing a deadline under federal law to decide whether to list the polar bear as endangered.

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Peru tribe battles oil giant over pollution
By Dan Collyns
BBC News, Loreto, Peru

Achuar’s spiritual leader, Tomas Maynas

Tomas Maynas says fish died and crops wilted. It is a familiar story. Big business
moves into a pristine wilderness and starts destroying the environment and by turn
the livelihoods of the indigenous people who live there.

But in a reversal of plot, there are now cases of people living traditional
lifestyles who are now invading the territory of the big companies and taking them
on at their own game.

The story of the Achuar tribe living in the Amazon rainforest of north-eastern Peru
is one of them.

Last year, they filed a class action lawsuit against oil giant Occidental Petroleum,
in Los Angeles.

Now they are awaiting a judge’s decision on whether the case can proceed in the US or
will be sent back to Peru, where it stands little chance of coming to court.

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