Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

February 6, 2008

E-mails expose Arctic oil scam, scientific dissent suppressed


By Carol Goldberg
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

Leaked E-Mails May Sink Arctic Offshore Lease Sales
Officials Scramble to Suppress Scientific Dissent over Bush Arctic Oil Initiative

WASHINGTON, DC - February 4 - The Interior Department is scrambling to stanch the flow of internal e-mails from its own scientists that undermine the legality of its aggressive offshore oil and gas lease sales in federal Arctic waters, according to correspondence released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The e-mails belie Bush administration claims that environmental risks were adequately considered prior to offering tracts in the Chukchi, Beaufort and Bering Seas for drilling.
During the past three weeks, PEER has released a series of internal e-mails from current and former Interior scientists raising troubling questions about how badly environmental assessments of Arctic offshore oil development were skewed. These e-mails have fueled two new lawsuits in the past week that threaten to stymie new lease sales and lend further support to ongoing litigation against earlier lease sales.
Read the gag order, and lawsuit against Interior regarding Freedom of Information and polar bear habitat:
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=985

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