Stop Lease Sale 258
Protect Lower Cook Inlet from future oil & gas development: Lease Sale 258
The federal government, through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), has proposed an oil and gas lease sale, called Lease Sale 258, in federal waters in Lower Cook Inlet. If it occurs, it would offer over a million acres in 9 square mile blocks resulting in 40 or more years of production of oil and gas in Lower Cook Inlet with new underwater pipelines, platforms, and associated increased traffic and tankers in the Inlet.
This lease would produce more emissions at a time when it is critical for Alaska to transition to energies that won’t create more greenhouse gases. Over the last few years, there has been serious damage to Alaska’s fisheries: pacific cod, snow crab, salmon in the Yukon, and others - with strong correlations to rising temperatures and loss of sea ice. The lease sale would occur in critical habitat for the endangered Cook Inlet belugas which are struggling to survive. A spill would very likely end up on the west coast at the beaches of Katmai and Lake Clark where our thriving bear tourism economy is located and down to the waters around Kodiak.
In the 1970s Alaskans joined together to prevent oil and gas development in Kachemak bay by asking our state to buy back leases to prevent irreversible harm to this amazing place. We can act now to prevent that from happening in Lower Cook Inlet.
What's the risk?
Pollution
Companies will be allowed to directly discharge drilling waste into Cook Inlet
Impacts to landscape
Difficult to quantify, but installed platforms, discharge, increased boat traffic, and noise in a pristine area
Impacts to Wildlife
Disturbance to migratory birds, marine mammals, and fish
Oil Spills
The current draft EIS predicts a 19% chance that one or more large (more than 42,000 gallons) oil spill will occur. Sea conditions, ice, temperatures, high waves, large tides and currents would hinder clean-up efforts.
What can YOU do?
- Sign the petition calling for permanent protections for Lower Cook Inlet at www.inletkeeper.org/ls258
- Make your voice heard through written comments before December 13th at www.inletkeeper.org/writtentestimony
- Engage with your friends and neighbors about the lease sale - see our resources below to help you with those conversations
- Watch Inletkeeper's social media for updates as the regulatory process moves forward
- Donate
written comments
Prepare and submit your comments at www.inletkeeper.org/writtentestimony
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is accepting written comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement regarding the proposed lease sale in Lower Cook Inlet (Lease Sale 258). They need to hear from Alaskans with concerns about fisheries, businesses, spills, infrastructure, or other concerns as we try to convince them to not hold the lease sale.
We have talking points here. Cook Inletkeeper also has other resources on the lease sale along with more information. Written comments can be submitted here between now and December 13, 2021 at 7:59 PM AKST.
Remember you are an expert in your experience and you know what you want. Don’t get too caught up in catering to what they want to hear. They need to hear from you. Your concerns and your wishes for the Inlet.
RESOURCES
SOCIAL MEDIA KIT
For organizations that are willing and ready to amplify the message and help protect Lower Cook Inlet from new oil and gas development.
INLETFLUENCERS
For individuals who want to talk to their friends or followers about Lease Sale 258, We've compiled graphics, FAQs, talking points and more to help you easily share or prepare for those conversations.
Support our work
Lease Sale 258 has been on the horizon, but we are now approaching the edge of the waterfall. Stopping oil & gas leasing before it gets a foothold in Lower Cook Inlet is imperative. We need you with us today to protect what we all love and value about this fantastic place. Lower Cook Inlet has created a regenerative economy based on world-class tourism. This area is prime fishing grounds for our commercial and sport fleets. Boats fish in the exact locations where the oil industry wants to install platforms and pipelines - pipelines like the one that just had a catastrophic leak in California. Not to mention the Lease Sale area would be some of the same waters where our endangered beluga whales live.
The impacts from climate change are here. Meanwhile, federal oil & gas lease sales - like 258 in Lower Cook Inlet - move forward. Alaska is reeling from warming temperatures as permafrost thaws and ice melts across the state. These are the same waters where the federal government closed the Pacific cod fishery because of the impacts of climate change. Yet this proposed lease sale would occur in these same waters. It’s up to all of us to say “no” to more oil and gas production with its increased carbon emissions and toxic discharge, making the lands and waters uninhabitable for generations to come.
