The proposal is for 5.6 million acres off the Alaska coast area which would now open to energy development. Under this proposal the North Aleutian Basin lease sale would be held in 2011. It is said that the exploratory drilling could begin the next year. The proposal was published in the federal register which means the start of the process. Robin Cacy, a mineral service spokesman in Anchorage, informed that soon the authority will involve a public comment to gather information for an environmental impact statement.
The National Marine Fisheries Service also published its final decision reaffirming portions of the lease area as critical habitat for the North Pacific right whale. The Center for Biological Diversity demands the closure of the Bering Sea lease sale. The centre said that more than half of the proposed lease sale area is designated critical habitat for the North Pacific right whale – long believed to be on certain road to extinction.
Brendan Cummings, centre spokesman, allowing drilling in the critical habitat is a bad omen for other endangered animals. It is fact that drilling could put the critical habitat of whale in danger and there would be no development.
