WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bill Delahunt announced today his support for legislation to prevent the federal Minerals Management Service (MMS) from developing energy in a 30 million-acre oil and gas lease sale that is an important coastal habitat for Polar Bears in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea.

“We should be protecting the important coastal habitat of the Chukchi Sea instead of auctioning it off to the energy companies.” Delahunt said today. “MMS' plans to develop energy should be put on hold until the federal government develops an overall plan to protect the polar bear and this important coastal habitat.”

Approximately 2,000 polar bears live in the Chukchi Sea. Animal rights groups and environmental activists have been urging the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, a move that would protect its habitat in the Chuckchi Sea.  Polar bears are increasing danger, due to the large-scale melting of the sea ice that makes up the polar bear habitat caused by climate change. 

Conservation groups, such as the Center for Biological Diversity, have criticized MMS studies as being written to favor energy development.  The Center for Biological Diversity has suggested that the MMS has hid critical documents showing that energy development would harm polar bear habitat. The Natural Resources Defense Council has even taken the federal government to court over the issue. 

To protect the area from development, Congressman Ed Markey introduced HR 5058 which prohibits the “Secretary of the Interior from selling any oil and gas as lease for any tract in the Lease Sale 193 Area of the Alaska Outer Continental Shelf Region until the Secretary makes a determination of the polar bear as a threatened species or an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. 

Over the past few weeks, Senators and House members have been increasingly critical of efforts by the MMS to auction off the area.

The letter co-signed by Delahunt stated “We strongly believe that it is not appropriate to move forward with a lease sale until this critical habitat is designated and MMS complies with the provisions of ESA Section 7 to minimize any further harm to this iconic species.”  Senator Kerry and ten other senators recently wrote to Interior Secretary Kempthorne expressing similar concerns.

To read the letter, please click here.

To read the legislation, please click here.

 

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