Scientists urge Obama to drop Arctic from plans for offshore drilling

Nearly 400 scientists have signed a letterurging President Obama to eliminate the possibility of Arcticoffshore drilling in the near future, by taking the Arctic Ocean outof the next federal offshore lease sale plan.

The scientists include Jane Lubchenco, Obama's formeradministrator of the National Oceanographic and AtmosphericAdministration, now a researcher and teacher at Oregon StateUniversity.

"I've witnessed some of the unprecedented changes underway inthe Arctic," Lubchenco said in a prepared statement."Conservingimportant marine areas is an essential step in sustaining theregion's resilience."

The 388 signees include scientists from 13 countries and 25current or emeritus professors at the University of Alaska.

Theiropinion runs counter to Alaska elected officials, who stronglysupport opening Alaska waters to drilling as a new source of oil forthe trans-Alaska pipeline.The Interior Department is collecting public comment throughThursday on the proposed five-year oil and gas leasing program, whichwould cover 2017 to 2022.

2 sales in the works

Environmental groups strongly oppose Arctic drilling. They sayindustrial activity will harm marine mammals already hurt by a lossof sea ice and that global warming will be accelerated by burningoil found in the Arctic Ocean.

Two sales in Arctic waters are in the plan: the Beaufort Sea, offAlaska's north shore, in 2020, and the Chukchi Sea, off thenorthwest coast, in 2022.

The letter was released by Pew Charitable Trusts. Pew's Arcticscience director, Henry Huntington, said the Obama administrationhas been clear that it wants decisions to be science-based. Theletter is a chance for scientists to weigh in on decisions in theArctic, a region that's rapidly changing.

"It's hard to know what's coming next, so caution is a goodidea," he said.

'We can protect the ocean and develop'

The White House and the Interior Department, said Gov. BillWalker in an email message Tuesday, will be subjected to incrediblepressure to make the lease sales so restrictive that it makes littlesense for companies or the state to participate.

"We can protect the ocean and develop," Walker said. "Thewhaling captains we have talked with tell us it is important to move forward with development. Their communities depend on it. They alsobelieve they can balance development with their subsistence way oflife."

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in October cancelled Beaufort andChukchi lease sales in the current five-year plan. She cited marketconditions and low industry interest.

Her decision followed a Sept. 28 announcement by Royal DutchShell PLC, the only company in the last decade to drill in federalwaters, that it would cease exploration in the Chukchi and Beaufortseas after spending upward of $7 billion. The company citeddisappointing results from a well drilled in the Chukchi and theunpredictable federal regulatory environment.

Alaska's all-Republican congressional delegation, Rep. Don Youngand Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, last month urged Jewellto retain future Arctic lease sales.

The Chukchi and the Beaufort hold an estimated 23.6 billionbarrels of conventionally recoverable oil enough to meet all ofCalifornia's demands for oil for 37.5 years, they said.

Drilling was proven safe through dozens of wells in the 1980s and'90s, they wrote.

"We must warn against any attempt to use past lease salecancellations and the chaotic regulatory regime that Interior hasimposed as evidence of a 'lack of industry interest' in offshoreAlaska," they said.