STOP the DOI from rushing through new oil and gas drilling without sufficient opportunity for public input!

The Department of Interior is poised to greenlight new drilling leases including in Cook Inlet -- the endangered beluga’s home.

Cook Inlet’s watershed is home to 400,000 people -- nearly two-thirds of Alaska’s population. And Alaskan natives depend on clean waters and a healthy environment for their subsistence lifestyle. An oil spill would be devastating to local communities. Even barring such a catastrophe, air and water pollution from fossil fuel drilling endangers everyone, especially children and seniors.

The DOI is prioritizing Big Oil and Gas profits over the communities and endangered wildlife that these corporations threaten with pollution. To make matters worse, the DOI has not provided impacted communities enough time to voice their opinion.

President

DO NOT USE Joe

DO NOT USE Biden

Comments

Dear Secretary Haaland:

I respectfully request a 45-day extension of the October 6, 2022, deadline to submit comments on the 2023-2028 National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Program (OCS Proposed Program) and the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).

The OCS Proposed Program offers 10 region-wide lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one area-wide lease sale in Cook Inlet, Alaska over the next five years. The program, as currently proposed, is unnecessary for domestic energy production, is based on faulty assumptions about future energy demand and consumption in the context of the climate crisis, and fails to account for the precarious status of ecosystems in the Gulf and Cook Inlet—particularly the heavy price the Gulf has already paid from existing leasing and Cook Inlet’s struggling fisheries in the face of climate change.

The Notice provides a 90-day public comment period, which currently closes on October 6, 2022. A 45-day extension of the comment period is warranted given the barriers to public participation in the directly affected regions during the comment period, the scope of important data and analysis BOEM is requesting on various issues in the program, and the significant impacts and risks for commenters to address. June through October is peak season in the Gulf for citizens who make their living offshore and will be most affected by the program, including fisherfolk and recreational tour operators. Moreover, the busiest months of the 2022 hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico are August through October, months that overlap directly with the majority of the comment period. Climate change is causing storms to become increasingly severe in that region. The devastation from another large storm would make it impossible for those impacted by the OCS Proposed Program to have an adequate opportunity to comment. Even small storms would cause disruption in the area and prevent the public from providing valuable input.

Summer is also difficult for fishers in Alaska and the Alaska Native community. Currently, both personal use and commercial fisheries are open in Cook Inlet. But also, many fishers from Cook Inlet are fishing further from home as Cook Inlet’s fisheries struggle, meaning they are out of contact. Similarly, tourism season is very busy in Cook Inlet, with bear guides or other operators being consumed with the short season from June and September. Alaskan Native tribal communities are busy at fish camps and drying salmon for the winter. Tribal communities not only rely on the bounty of summer fish but also on the berry season, which is just starting. Both of these essential traditional harvest practices lead into fall moose season, another vital food source.

Due to these factors, we respectfully request that BOEM extend the public comment period for both the Proposed Program and the DEIS by at least 45 days (until November 21, 2022). Thank you for considering this request.
 
Sincerely, 
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{user_data~City}, {user_data~State} {user_data~Postcode}

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