Conservationists condemn plans for Chukchi Sea petroleum leases

The U.S. government will open up nearly 46,000 square miles off Alaska's northwest coast to petroleum leases next month.

Environmental groups that contend the industrial activity will harm polar bears and other northern marine mammals condemned this decision. The Minerals Management Agency planned the sale in the Chukchi Sea without taking into account changes in the Arctic brought on by global warming and proposed insufficient protections for polar bears, walrus, whales and other species that could be harmed by drilling rigs or spills. The lease sale is among the largest acreage (hectarage) offered in the Alaska region. The MMS announced it would hold a lease sale Feb. 6 in Anchorage for the ocean floor on the outer continental shelf of the Chukchi Sea, the body of water that begins north of the Bering Strait and stretches between northwest Alaska and the northern coast of the Russian Far East. The MMS is a branch of the Interior Department.

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