Bristol Bay Drilling Endangers World-Class Fishery

January 9, 2007

Anyone who values fine seafood, fiscal responsibility, and a rational energy policy should be alarmed at the administration's lifting of an oil and gas drilling prohibition in Alaska's Bristol Bay, Republicans for Environmental Protection, a national grassroots organization that includes elected officials as members, said today.

The administration's action, which lifted a presidential drilling moratorium that was not scheduled to expire until 2012, clears the way for including Bristol Bay leasing in the Interior Department's offshore oil and gas program that will be released this spring.

"Every American who enjoys high quality seafood ought to be outraged at this latest oil and gas industry giveaway," said REP Government Affairs Director Dave Jenkins. "If I were the owner of a seafood restaurant I would be very nervous right now."

Bristol Bay is one of the world's most productive marine ecosystems. Its clean, cold waters produce some of the highest quality, wild-caught seafood in the world - sockeye and Chinook salmon, king crab, cod and halibut - which support the local fishing economy and supply grocery stores and fine dining establishments across the nation.

"To put all of that natural bounty and economic activity at risk is not only reckless, it defies logic," Jenkins said.

Opening Bristol Bay to oil and gas drilling would amount to throwing away the $95 million that the federal government spent to buy back leases that had been issued in the late 1980s.

Opening Bristol Bay to drilling raises doubts about the administration's stated commitment to ending the nation's oil addiction.

"It strains credulity for the administration to talk about ending America's oil addiction and then endanger one of America's richest fishing grounds for 10 days worth of oil and three months worth of gas," REP Policy Director Jim DiPeso said.

REP called for swift bipartisan action in Congress to protect Bristol Bay and its abundant bounty by reinstating a congressional oil and gas drilling moratorium that expired in 2003.

True energy security for America will be found through greater fuel efficiency and diversifying the nation's energy choices, not in the pristine waters of Bristol Bay, DiPeso said.