A coalition of environmental organizations and Inupiaq native groups filed suit in a US federal court in Anchorage yesterday to force the Interior Department to do a new analysis of the environmental consequences of oil and gas exploration in the Chukchi Sea, off northwestern Alaska.
The groups hope to stop plans to develop 29 million […]

Oil and natural gas production at Alaska’s North Slope may have been declining since 1988 but the region holds promise if energy prices stay high and Congress opens key areas to exploration, the U.S. Energy Department is arguing.
The North Slope could yield up to 36 billion barrels of oil and 137 trillion cubic feet of […]

The United States has blocked the release of a landmark assessment of oil and gas activity in the Arctic as it prepares to sell off exploration licences for the Chukchi Sea off Alaska.
Scientists at the release of the censored Arctic Council report in Norway said there was “huge frustration” that the US had derailed a […]

The directors of two Interior Department agencies said yesterday they’re confident oil and gas exploration in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska can proceed without threatening polar bears that depend on the sea ice.
The officials appeared before a Congressional committee on global warming that is examining why the department is postponing a decision on whether […]

Yesterday the Bush Administration delayed a decisive decision as to whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. The feeling is that political meddling and its recent rush to sell oil leases in Arctic waters are behind the delay.
Federal law requires U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to have made a final decision […]