The Environment News Service reports in their current edition:

WASHINGTON, DC, January 13, 2006 (ENS) - Over the opposing voices of Alaska Natives, scientists, sportsmen and conservation groups, the Bush administration Wednesday opened for oil and gas leasing 100 percent of Alaska's Teshekpuk Lake Special Area.

The decision eliminates longstanding wildlife and environmental protections first put in place by Reagan administration Interior Secretary James Watt.

The 4.6 million acre area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is immediately west of the massive Prudhoe Bay oil field in northern Alaska bordering the Beaufort Sea. Conservationists point out that the area provides vital habitat for migratory waterfowl, caribou and other wildlife, and is an important subsistence hunting and fishing area.

Congress last month rejected a proposal to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 110 miles further east.

The Teshekpuk Lake Special Area encompasses one of the most important wetland complexes in the circumpolar Arctic. The 45,000 head Teshekpuk Lake Caribou Herd bears its calves and seeks relief from insects near Teshekpuk Lake, and it is a key summer molting or nesting location for many of North America's migratory ducks, geese, swans, loons and other birds.



For numerous species of wildlife, the network of coastal lagoons, deep-water lakes, wet sedge grass meadows and river deltas of the Teshekpuk Lake area are unsurpassed habitat. (Photo courtesy Northern Alaska Environmental Center)

Alaska Natives rely on the area for subsistence fishing and hunting, especially caribou hunts. Brant and other waterfowl that migrate there are harvested for both subsistence and sport in Alaska and in many of the Lower 48 states.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Chad Calvert, who approved the changes to allow drilling, said the amended plan will guide leasing, exploration and development in the Petroleum Reserve for the next 10 to 20 years. He said the lease stipulations and required operating procedures used will be similar to those adopted for the adjacent northwest area of the Petroleum Reserve in 2004.

Conservationists were dismayed by the decision. "The administration today opened 100 percent of the northeast NPRA to drilling," said Eleanor Huffines of the Wilderness Society. "Apparently 87 percent wasn't enough for the oil companies."

"Even more outrageous is the administration's attempt to dress this up that as 'environmentally responsible' decision," Huffines said. "This decision ignores the voices of leading scientists, sportsmen from across the nation, and the Alaska Native people who depend on the wildlife and subsistence resources of the region."