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Fri Aug 22 2008
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Departments Environment
No Comments for you! Extension for NPRA comment period denied
by Alaska Wilderness League
March 17, 2003
The American people have been denied additional time to voice their
opinion
about the management of their public lands. A recent decision by the
administration rejects a request to extend the public comment period for
the
draft oil and gas leasing plan of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska's
northwest area. A coalition of conservation groups formally requested
extending the 60 day comment period to 90 days, as was requested and
approved in 1998 for the northeast planning area of the NPR-A. The same
group also asked for public hearings to be held in the lower 48 states,
just
as they were for the northeast planning area of this region, also called
the
Western Arctic.
Only a single hearing outside Alaska was granted, to be held in
Washington,
DC on March 13 - a mere five days before the public comment period ends
March 18. With so much land in the crosshairs of big oil, and so little -
less than 5 percent - of the nation's land permanently protected as
wilderness, it is only fair that the public has adequate opportunity to
speak up.
"This is about corporate greed, pure and simple, because Americans don't
want to see their remaining wild public land handed over to special oil
and
gas interests," said Mike Matz, executive director of the Campaign for
America's Wilderness. "Americans deserve the chance to have their voices
heard, yet the decision to shut off additional time for public comment is
further evidence that the administration is putting special corporate
interests over the public interest."
On Thursday, March 13, a coalition of groups and individuals will use this
single opportunity outside of Alaska to make their case for a more
balanced
approach in America's Western Arctic -- one that protects the area's most
special places from the irreversible ravages of oil and gas drilling.
Conservationists have united behind a "Wildlife Habitat Hotspots
Alternative" -- an alternative to the proposals believed to have the
inside
track for development in the northwest planning area of the NPR-A. Those
proposals would allow leasing in 96 to 100 percent of this largely
pristine
and wildlife-rich land.
"The administration has placed Alaska's arctic in jeopardy, attempting to
open more and more of America's treasured lands to fill the pockets of the
oil and gas corporations, " said Deb Moore, Arctic Coordinator of the
Northern Alaska Environmental Center. "Just last month, the
administration
announced its intentions to open the Beaufort Sea to oil and gas leasing
and
it continues to use backdoor attempts to open the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge to drilling, despite overwhelming public opposition."
If you haven't commented yet, please go to
www.alaskawild.org/new.html#NPRA and do so! March 18th is the
deadline!
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"No Comments for you! Extension for NPRA comment period denied" March 17, 2003 Alaska Wilderness League
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