FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 11, 2009

Over the past two days, both Congress and the Obama Administration have initiated important reviews of America’s offshore drilling policy. The White House and lawmakers are signaling a new comprehensive, science-based approach to development of offshore energy resources that will also include renewable energy resources and offers hope for restoring protections that long existed for Alaska’s fish-rich Bristol Bay.

Secretary Salazar announced Tuesday the Department of the Interior would engage in a review of the last minute 5-year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program pushed through by former President Bush just days before he left office.  That plan would run from 2010-2015 and includes two lease sales in Bristol Bay. Salazar also announced a regional meeting on offshore drilling in Alaska will be held in the near future.

“We are pleased to hear that the new administration will be taking a hard look at Bush-era drilling policies. We are optimistic that during this review it will become clear that Bristol Bay is one area where the tremendous ecological, economic and cultural risks of drilling clearly outweigh the potential benefits,” said Kelly Harrell, Friends of Bristol Bay Director for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.

Today, the House Natural Resources Committee held the first in a series of hearings focused on offshore drilling policy.

A number of speakers at the hearing, including Zeke Grader, Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, called specifically for protection of Bristol Bay. Congress has already indicated they will not seek to reinstate the national ban on offshore drilling which expired last fall. Bristol Bay was included in that ban until fiscal year 2004. The Natural Resources Committee hearings are intended to address what areas should be off limits, what areas might be drilled and under what conditions.

“From the outset of these hearings, Bristol Bay is already moving to the forefront of areas to be protected under a new comprehensive energy policy. The region supplies 40% of the U.S. seafood harvest but is anticipated to hold less than 1% of oil and 2% of natural gas reserves in our nation’s Outer Continental Shelf. Drilling here would contribute little to nothing towards national energy independence, but would jeopardize Alaska’s fishing industry and local, state and regional economies that depend on the health of these fishery resources,” added Harrell.

President Bush quietly removed the executive ban on leasing in Bristol Bay in January of 2007, several years after congressional protections were lifted. The move paved the way for the Department of the Interior to schedule a lease sale for 2011 in the same 5.6 million acre block of rich waters at the southern end of Bristol Bay previously sold in the 1980’s, and then bought back with taxpayer dollars after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The Minerals Management Service has stated that this sale would be contingent upon decisions by the new administration.

“Both Congress and the Obama administration have the opportunity under this new framework to put into place permanent protections for the very valuable fishery resources of Bristol Bay and the southeast Bering Sea. They are important globally, nationally and locally. Drilling in our nation’s important fishing grounds is not the solution to our energy problems. Permanent protection is the sound policy choice for Alaska and the nation,” said Harrell.