Judge blocks north Alaska oil, gas leases

[Judi Lynn]

Sept. 25, 2006, 11:25PM
Judge blocks north Alaska oil, gas leases

New York Times

WASHINGTON - The Interior Department's plan to sell oil and natural gas leases within 389,000 acres of shallow lakes and wildlife-rich tundra in northern Alaska was blocked on Monday by a federal judge in Anchorage who ruled that the department had failed to do a thorough analysis of the plan's environmental impact.

It was the most recent in a string of legal setbacks for the Bush administration's public-lands policies. In each case, federal judges said the government had failed to adhere to environmental requirements.

The decision, by Judge James K. Singleton, affects an area in the northeastern part of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve, 23.5 million acres set aside in 1923 by the government for future energy needs. The area, between the Beaufort Sea and Teshekpuk Lake, which dominates a region speckled with hundreds of small lakes, is important to migratory birds.

It is also part of the range of a large caribou herd that spends its summers near the sea to escape Alaska's aggressive insects.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4214282.html

[babylonsister]

1. Very perfect! Thank you James K. Singleton & Judi Lynn.

Whenever I get to Alaska, I would like to see some wildlife.

[acmavm]

2. I lived there early 70s. It was the best place I've ever been.