Earth Equity News

Bush Administration Reverses, Decides to Protect Arctic Wetlands. By Yereth Rosen, Reuters, May 19, 2008. "The Bush administration on Friday proposed keeping potentially oil-rich wetlands in Arctic Alaska off-limits to drilling because of their ecological sensitivity, a reversal of its earlier plan. The Bureau of Land Management proposed a 10-year leasing moratorium for 430,000 acres of wetlands north and east of vast Teshekpuk Lake in the National Petroleum Reserve [in] Alaska. Environmentalists and local groups hailed the decision... Two years ago, the administration was poised to sell leases to energy companies seeking to drill. But a lawsuit... forced the agency to revisit the plan in late 2006. Extensive public comment... contributed to the policy change... 'It is a win,' said Stan Senner... of Audubon Alaska... 'I think they've responded to public interest in seeing that the area's protected, and it gives people who care about the place time to work on a permanent solution.'"