Shell’s Kulluk Oil Rig, credit Tom Doyle/Flickr

Shell’s rig is not simply another rig.  It is the pioneer, intended to open a new frontier and convert an unspoiled aquatic wilderness into the next big oil rush. These waters are vital habitat for an abundance of wildlife such as ringed seals, as well as whales that travel the world’s oceans and birds that migrate across North America every year.

Shell Oil:  A Large Spill is Not “Reasonably Foreseeable.”

As a team of oil spill experts warned in a thorough report of Arctic ocean drilling the risks are being minimized and ignored now just as they have been ignored before, as we witnessed so tragically with BP’s ultra deepwater operations. In the Gulf, we had the largest spill response infrastructure in the country to support a dense concentration of long term operations.  In the remote Arctic waters, there is nothing except rough seas and sea ice that can close waters to recovery operations for long periods of time.  Shell is bringing up a single spill response barge.  It’s hard enough to cast a crab pot in these waters, let alone contain millions of barrels of spilled oil.  NWF’s Peter Lafontaine noted last summer this statement by US Coast Guard Commandant Robert Papp:

“If the company fails, if the response plan fails, the federal government must in some way be able to back it up with some resources. We had plenty of resources, from bases to communication systems to helicopters, in the Gulf of Mexico. And if this were to happen off the North Slope of Alaska, we’d have nothing.”

So we are crossing our fingers and trusting that Shell can mobilize the resources to handle a spill.  At least they are taking the risk seriously, right?  Well, no:

“A large oil spill, such as a crude release from a blowout, is extremely rare and not
considered a reasonably foreseeable impact.” — Shell Alaska Chukchi Sea Exploration Plan

Sound familiar?  Here’s what BP said in their Gulf drilling plans prior to the Deepwater Horizon blowout:

“In the event of an unanticipated blowout resulting in an oil spill, it is unlikely to
have an impact based on the industry-wide standards for using proven equipment
and technology for such responses.” –Oil Spill Response Plan for BP Deepwater Horizon Drilling

Should we trust an oil company to begin drilling in these unspoiled waters when their plans are based on the premise that a large oil spill isn’t “reasonably forseeable?” No, we know better.  But they received a green light, anyway.

Does Wildlife Matter to Government Drilling Regulators?

Bearded Seal, via Kerry Ritz/Flickr

No evidence?!  Here are some of BOEMRE’s conclusions from their own environmental assessment of what could happen in a major spill (one that significantly underestimates the potential for a long-running blow-out like we saw in the Gulf):

Assuming that all young ringed and bearded seals exposed to the oil died because of absorption (through the skin), inhalation, and/or ingestion of toxic hydrocarbons in the oil, this loss could take these marine mammal populations more than one to two generations to recover Shell (p. 131-2).

Polar bears exposed to petroleum hydrocarbons through direct contact or by ingesting oiled prey would probably not survive (p. 132)

In lagoon habitats, long-tailed duck densities suggest that when large concentrations of molting individuals are present, tens of thousands could be contacted by spilled oil. This would constitute a substantial loss to the regional population. Notable losses would also be experienced by post-breeding common eiders concentrated near barrier islands and in lagoons. A spill …would be expected to contact several other species present in substantial numbers, including the king eider, scoters, northern pintail, Pacific loon, and glaucous gull. (p. 130-1)

Oil Disasters: An Acceptable Cost of Doing Business?

Everyone knows where this story ends up…it really comes down to how often and how big the spills will be off Alaska’s northern shores, and how badly wildlife is impacted.  But the risks of a wildlife disaster are all an acceptable cost of doing business for oil companies.  After all, BP pocketed $24 billion in profits in 2011.  Deepwater Horizon was a financial blip for them, but the damages to marine life will be long-lasting.

Jan 6: Science Friday

Winter Wonderland? Wonder No Longer

The winter solstice has come and gone, making it officially winter in the U.S., with cooler temperatures, less sunlight, and, in some places, snow, ice, and frost. NWF’s David Mizejewski joins a panel of experts to discuss the different phenomena that combine to make up the season we call winter, and give tips for how best to appreciate the natural world in wintertime.

Jan 5: The Washington Post

Advice from a former obese kid

The new year has brought with it renewed pledges to make 2012 the year we finally take on the childhood obesity epidemic.

Max Greenberg has his own thoughts on this front. Greenberg works for the National Wildlife Federation and Outdoors Alliance for Kids. He’s an avid promoter of unstructured physical activity to combat the childhood obesity epidemic.

Jan 4: Foster’s Daily Democrat (op-ed)

Silent Swing: On Trips Through NH, Candidates Failing to Talk Conservation

Theodore Roosevelt creating the National Parks System to Richard Nixon establishing the Environmental Protection Agency to George H.W. Bush signing a strengthened Clean Air Act, Republicans have a long history of supporting common sense solutions to problems facing our wildlife, air, water and public health. Will this year’s crop of GOP candidates follow that conservative presidential tradition?

So far, the signs aren’t promising. I’ve heard plenty about jobs, but little of protecting the rivers, lakes and wildlife habitat that supports thousands of hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation related jobs across New Hampshire. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife, in New Hampshire 228,000 people spent $177 million on fishing in 2006. Every dollar spent on conservation programs here in New Hampshire delivers jobs and economic activity.

Dec 30: The Washington Post

Mild weather redefines winter landscape

At the National Arboretum, the white petals of snowdrops — normally an early spring flower — have unfurled. In Maine’s Acadia National Park, lakes still have patches of open water instead of being frozen solid. And in Donna Izlar’s back yard in downtown Atlanta, the apricot tree has started blooming.

It’s not in your imagination. The unusually mild temperatures across several regions of the country in the past few months are disrupting the natural cycles that define the winter landscape.

Dec 29: The Colorado Independent

BLM sage-grouse guidance ruffles some enviro feathers

Reactions from conservation groups both nationally and on the ground in Colorado have been mixed regarding this week’s U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) guidance for the preservation of habitat for the greater sage grouse.

The size of small chickens, the wild, mostly ground-bound birds are found on up to 47 million acres of federal land managed by the BLM in 10 western states, including Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Scientists say the bird is a key indicator species, but that populations have declined by up to 90 percent over the last century because of energy development, mining, grazing, residential development and invasive species of weeds in sagebrush country.

Dec 28: The Today Show

David Mizejewski with Cold-Weather Critters

David Mizejewski from the National Wildlife Federation introduces the TODAY gang to a few amazing animals, including an arctic fox, a snowy owl, a porcupine and more.

Dec 27: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (op-ed)

Keep drilling out of state parks

Pennsylvania’s state parks are special places. These public lands provide opportunities for families to connect with nature and for sportsmen and women to enjoy hunting and fishing. Our state parks also allow folks to escape from the stress of traffic jams and crowded cities for cleaner air and more peaceful moments.

Unfortunately, conserving these precious outdoor spaces for recreation and the quality of life they provide for Pennsylvania’s residents may conflict with another resource: natural gas.

Photo Credit: Kelsey Bensch, The Wilderness Society

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is home to a diverse ecosystem that provides habitat for polar bears and Arctic terns as well as other species such as caribou, Arctic Fox, and musk oxen.  A wilderness designation for the Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain — the area that is constantly under threat of drilling — is needed protect this habitat forever from development and help increase resiliency to the impacts of climate change.

National Wildlife Federation joined groups like Alaska Wilderness League, The Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife and more to deliver 860,000 comments urging wilderness protection for the coastal plain of the refuge to the Fish and Wildlife Service.  Only Congress can designate wilderness through legislation, but a recommendation in Fish and Wildlife Service’s Comprehensive Conservation Plan would send a strong signal to Congress that oil and gas drilling is incompatible with the Refuge’s purpose.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Big Oil’s friends in Congress are still pushing a dirty energy agenda that includes open up the refuge to drilling and putting wildlife at risk.  They are even pulling out their own costumes.  Alaska Representative Don Young ‘donned’ a propeller beanie cap in a House Resources committee hearing in order to drive home the point that he favors more drilling on federal lands and waters.

Rep. Young wasn’t done there.  He also got into a heated exchange with famous author and historian Douglas Brinkley (author of “The Wilderness Warrior” about President Teddy Roosevelt) at an oversight hearing on “ANWR (Arctic Refuge): Jobs, Energy and Deficit Reduction.”  Clips from that hearing can be viewed here.

It’s clear that the pressure is on for the future of the Arctic Refuge and other sensitive areas at risk from drilling.  If you would like to make a difference to protect wildlife by pushing back against drilling proponents, take action by weighing in with federal decision makers.

Columbus Statehouse | flickr / radsu

Spring has finally arrived in Ohio! What a beautiful time to get outside again, work in the garden, walk in the woods, and enjoy the treasure of natural resources Ohio has to offer. We really are very fortunate in our state to have such a wide array of state parks, wildlife preservers, and scenic rivers to enjoy close to home.

Please join me on Tuesday, May 17th. We will be celebrating “We Love Our Parks, We Love Clean Water Day” on the lawn of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus from 10am -4pm.

I have spent the last few months, as I’m sure you have, ready to toss the jacket aside and feel some grass between my toes. One of my favorite things to do every spring is to hike at Hocking Hills State Park and Old Man’s Caves. Now, I take my 12-year old daughter with me and I feel like I get to see it all again for the first time.

What is really upsetting to me is that there are very serious efforts in the state legislature right now to strip away some of the natural beauty we have all been waiting to enjoy. As you may have heard, there is language in the state budget bill being debated right now that would open up our state parks, nature preserves, and other protected lands to oil and natural gas drilling.

Fish, wildlife, and water resources found on Ohio’s state parks and preserves are extremely valuable, and are growing more so each day as private lands become developed. As hunters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts, National Wildlife Federation members know that protecting wildlife habitat is crucial to maintaining wildlife populations that sustain hunting and fishing activities.

In fact, those of us who enjoy the outdoors contribute in excess of $10 billion to conservation through excise tax and licensing revenue, which provides 80% of the funding to most state fish and wildlife agencies each year. We have a vested interest in keeping our parks system strong.

That is why it is so important that we attend “We Love Our Parks, We Love Clean Water Day” on the lawn of the Ohio Statehouse from 10am-4pm on Tuesday, May 17th. If you can join us, please email me at tsabetta@initiativeohio.com.

As funding cuts and gas drilling threaten our parks, show Ohio leaders that you care about our natural treasures by enjoying the outdoors at the “people’s house.” Bring blankets, friends, and recreational equipment like Frisbees, footballs, and more! The event will feature a picnic, games, information booths, a press conference with some of our legislative champions, music, and much more. Rain or shine — so bring your ponchos!

Federal regulators weren’t concerned about the risk of a catastrophic blowout & spill at the Deepwater Horizon site, according to a report in the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

BP estimated that in the worst case, a blowout at the well would spew out 162,000 barrels of oil every day, a massive figure that far exceeds any estimate of what’s coming out now.

But in its exploration plan in March 2009, BP assured the federal Minerals Management Service that a well blowout was so unlikely that “a blowout scenario … is not required for the operations proposed.”

MMS then granted BP a “categorical exclusion” from a public review of the potential environmental impact of the drilling.

The National Wildlife Federation has been a leader in the call to hold regulators accountable:

Those assertions and MMS’ acceptance of them angered Larry Schweiger, president and CEO National Wildlife Federation, when he testified last week before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

“MMS should have immediately insisted upon conducting an (environmental impact study),” Schweiger said. “Given the scale of the enterprise and the inherent risk of deepwater drilling, MMS should have recognized this as a crucial opportunity to review the adequacy of the spill prevention and response technology proposed by BP. Instead MMS adhered to a legally flawed internal policy that was adopted by the Bush administration in 2004 and granted a categorical exclusion … for a huge array of environmentally hazardous activities in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Now we’re supposed to trust those same regulators to oversee oil drilling off Alaska? Tell Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to step in, stop the drills & protect critical polar bear habitat.

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife & to learn how you can help, visit NWF.org/OilSpill.

The spill response plan for the site of the Deepwater Horizon explosion certifies that “BP Exploration & Production Inc have the capability to respond to the appropriate worst-case spill scenario” – which BP claimed would be a maximum spill of 162,000 gallons per day. Now, we know that the rupture is spewing more than 200,000 gallons per day into the Gulf — exceeding the “worst-case scenario” provided to regulators, and five times larger than originally revealed.

After a similarly unrelenting spill from an oil rig near Australia last year, oil companies went before Congress and promised that this couldn’t happen here in America. In September, David Rainey of BP testified before the Senate that their offshore technology was “safe and reliable.” He pledged that “any release from our operations is unacceptable.” Eight months later, the Coast Guard has set the ocean on fire in an unsuccessful bid to stop the spread of BP’s oil in the Gulf.

For the past two years, oil companies have been pouring tens of millions of dollars into an advertising campaign touting “advanced” drilling technology. You’ve seen the ads. Their message on coastal drilling: “Increasing our energy while decreasing our impact.” These same oil companies have deployed more than 700 lobbyists in Washington to make sure politicians parrot their oil lullaby as the stall congressional action on safer energy alternatives and provide lax oversight of drilling operations offshore and onshore.

The oil companies have had almost everything on their side – money, power, influence. Everything, that is, except reality.

For the latest on the Gulf Coast Oil Spill and how you can help, visit NWF.org/OilSpill.

Photo via Flickr’s SkyTruth

As the investigation continues into the oil rig blast that left 11 workers missing & presumed dead, crews are working to clean up the 42,000 gallons of oil per day spilling into the Gulf of Mexico:

Officials determined through weather patterns that the sheen of oil and water, now covering 600 square miles, would remain at least 30 miles from shore for the next three days. But states along the Gulf Coast have been warned to be on alert.

“We have been in contact with all the coastal states,” Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry, the commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District, said at a news conference on Sunday. Emphasizing that the sheen was not estimated to hit shore anytime soon, Admiral Landry said contingency plans were being put in place.

“Everyone is forward-leaning and preparing for coastal impact,” she said.

Louisiana is erecting containment booms around sensitive coastal areas as a precautionary measure.

If the oil reaches shore, it could mean disaster for the people & wildlife that call the Gulf Coast home. We’ll continue keeping a close eye on this story.

For the latest on the Gulf Coast Oil Spill & how you can help, visit NWF.org/OilSpill.

Photo via U.S. Coast Guard

How much oil sits under the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? An informal survey shows many of those yelling “drill baby drill” the loudest have very little idea.

FrumForum interviewed 57 people at a Tea Party rally on Capitol Hill this week. As Tim Mak writes, “Conventional estimates suggest that ANWR holds about a year’s supply of oil, based on the CIA’s estimate of oil consumption.” Just one year’s worth of oil — and that’s only for America, not rest of our increasingly energy-thirst planet.

So what do the results of the interviews show? Not a single one of the Tea Partiers interviewed got the question right — with closest answer still doubling the actual amount of oil under the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — and the worst overestimating the amount of oil by one thousand times:

Mak concludes, “ANWR has become the cure-all for the United States’ growing energy requirements –- except neither are sustainable solutions for the future.”

Even under the most optimistic scenarios, drilling in all of our wilderness areas desired by Big Oil combined would only mean a 4-5 cent reduction in the price of a gallon of gasoline by 2025. Meanwhile, clean energy & climate legislation would save Americans $180 billion through 2030 in foreign oil costs — four times more effective at reducing oil imports than drilling. Learn more in the National Wildlife Federation’s 2008 Don’t Be Fooled fact sheet.

Photo via Flickr’s TheWildernessSociety