here's something to think about before your next auto purchase.
oil companies are leasing up the Chukchi Sea, home of the polar bear, in spite of protests, as quickly as they can before a new president takes office.
the Bush administration has given the green light.
the chances of an oil spill in that region is 50%.
Yesterday, the Bush administration offered nearly 30 million acres of prime polar bear habitat to oil companies. Now home to polar bears, whales, and walruses, Alaska’s Chukchi Sea will soon be at the mercy of the oil and gas industry.
Alaska Wilderness League staff was blogging live at the lease sale in Anchorage. Check it out to see how the lease sale went.Alaska Wild
Oil companies bid a record $2.6 billion for oil and gas leases for 29 million acres in waters off the northwest coast of Alaska. Those waters are home to the polar bear. The sale has touched off another round of debate about conservation versus exploration.NPR
Shell Is High Bidder to Drill for Oil and Gas Off Alaska
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell led a handful of petroleum companies in bidding Wednesday for leases in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest shore.
The sale went forward over the protest of conservation and Native Alaska groups, plus objections by Congressional members outside the state, who said the federal agency, the Minerals Management Service, should have delayed the sale until a decision was made on protections for polar bears.
Shell’s vice president for exploration for the Americas, Annell Bay, said the lease sale was an opportunity to move into an undeveloped region that could help meet an increasing demand for energy. “There’s not many areas like this in the United States,” Ms. Bay said.
Seven companies offered bids totaling nearly $3.4 billion. High bids added up to nearly $2.7 billion on 2.76 million acres. The federal agency estimates the area contains 15 billion barrels of conventionally recoverable oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of conventionally recoverable natural gas.
Shell, bidding as Shelf Gulf of Mexico, submitted 275 high bids, adding up to $2.1 billion. Shell bid $105 million for one tract, which worked out to be $18,497 a acre.
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