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Bush Administration keeping secrets on Arctic drilling plans
Club sues to enforce Freedom of Information Act
The Sierra Club, Alaska Wilderness League, Defenders of Wildlife, and The Wilderness
Society announced March 11 that they are suing the Bush Administration for refusing
to divulge information about energy industry efforts to drill in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. The Bush Administration has refused to respond to two separate
Freedom of Information Act requests to reveal communications about drilling in
the Arctic Refuge, including any communications with the oil industry or lobbying
groups.
We know the Bush Administration supports destructive drilling in the pristine
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the public deserves to know how and why that
decision was made, said David Bookbinder, Sierra Club attorney.
Last year the environmental groups submitted two requests under the Freedom of
Information Act for records, including scientific information, relevant to Department
of the Interiors treatment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and proposals
to open the coastal plain to oil development. To date, the Department of the Interior
has not provided any documents responsive to these requests and has instead engaged
in tactics designed to simply delay or obstruct the process. These tactics left
the groups with no option but to have a court force the Administration to obey
the law.
A newly-released report by the National Academy of Sciences on the cumulative
impacts of drilling on Alaskas North Slope reaffirmed the devastating impacts
that drilling has already caused across the region. The report provided further
evidence that allowing this destructive development to extend into the Arctic
Refuge would only exacerbate existing environmental and cultural problems and
cause more damage.
Drilling in the Arctic will do nothing to solve our current energy demands. Any
oil from the Refuge will not reach the lower 48 states for at least 7-10 years
according to the oil industry. The most optimistic estimates say there is only
about six months supply of oil in the Arctic. |
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