The Arctic Ocean's pristine waters are in danger. This remote region is one of the least understood areas in the world and we lack basic information about the area, including the effects of oil drilling. Despite this, the Obama administration recently concluded the agency doesn't need this information before allowing oil drilling leases to go forward.
No technology currently exists to clean up oil spilled in frozen seas. An oil spill in the Arctic would devastate endangered bowhead whales, polar bears, seals and other marine wildlife and severely affect Native subsistence communities.
The time to study the impact of an oil spill should not be after that oil spill has occurred.
We must demand a more cautious approach to offshore drilling in the Arctic's remote waters. Tell President Obama and his administration that oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean isn't worth the risk.
SUBJECT: Comments on Final SEIS, Chukchi Sea Lease Sale 193
Dear Sec. Salazar,
Allowing oil drilling and development in the pristine and remote waters of America's Arctic Ocean is a risky and unnecessary venture. Government scientists agree that more data is needed to fully understand the impacts of an oil spill in this sensitive region. Given this, I urge you to rescind the Chukchi Sea lease Sale 193 leases and gather vital missing baseline data and oil spill response information before moving forward with leasing and drilling in the Arctic Ocean.
[Your comments will be inserted here.]
This remote region is one of the lease understood areas of the world, and an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean would devastate endangered bowhead whales, polar bears, seals and other marine wildlife and would severely affect Native subsistence communities which have thrived in the remote region for thousands of years. No technology currently exists to clean up an oil spill in frozen and icy seas.
The rush to allow oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean moves us away from a clean energy future than doesn't rely on dirty fossil fuels. It put a sensitive ecosystem at unnecessary risk. it threatens endangered and threatened species, as well as Native communities.
Please consider the impacts of your decision to open the Arctic Ocean to oil drilling. Just over a year ago, a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico devastated that region. Don't make the same mistake twice by opening the Arctic Ocean to unsafe oil drilling.
