Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Report tallies all-time low for votes to protect the environment

Current members in the U.S. House of Representatives have cast the most anti-environment votes of any Congress in history. That was the take-home message of a minority report from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce commissioned by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.).

According to the report, the 112^th Congress cast at least one anti-environment vote for every day it was in session—a total of 191 anti-environment votes were recorded. Those votes undermined many of Defenders’ priority issues such as upholding vital Endangered Species Act protections, demanding careful review of offshore drilling proposals, and taking strong action to combat climate change.

Here’s a further breakdown taken from the report:

The report notes a sharp partisan divide in votes to undermine environmental protections—94% of votes cast by House Republicans were anti-environment while 86% of votes cast by House Democrats were pro-environment. But as we saw with the Extinction Rider and a handful of other conservation votes, a number of Republicans have demonstrated their willingness to join with most Democrats and stand up for America’s wildlife.  After all, statutes like the Endangered Species Act, signed into law by President Richard Nixon, were enacted with strong bipartisan support.

Still, the overall record of the 112^th Congress does not bode well, especially as we head into a tough election year. We’ll be working double-time to make sure that America’s imperiled wildlife doesn’t fall victim to petty party politics and to encourage those Republicans who support this nation’s wildlife heritage to make their voices and votes heard.

Learn more about the 112^th Congress’ dismal voting record using the Defenders Action Fund’s Conservation Report Card.

America's Arctic Ocean provides vital habitat for Alaska's disappearing polar bear populations.

WASHINGTON – In the latest in a series of reckless decisions about America’s Arctic Ocean, the Obama administration on December 16 gave Royal Dutch Shell the green light to drill in the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea beginning next summer – despite the fact that there is no proven way to clean up an oil spill in the Arctic’s extreme conditions and there is significant dearth of scientific information, making it impossible to understand the impacts of Shell’s activities.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced conditional approval of Shell’s plan to drill six exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea in 2012 and 2013. This decision follows on the heels of the Obama administration’s controversial approval of exploratory drilling in the Arctic’s Beaufort Sea, also beginning in the summer of 2012. However, before Shell can actually begin drilling the administration still must approve a series of permits – including a final APD or “application for permit to drill.”

The Arctic Ocean is prone to hurricane-force storms, 20-foot swells, pervasive sea ice, frigid temperatures and months-long darkness.  There is no proven way to clean up an oil spill in these extreme conditions. What’s more, the Arctic has extremely limited infrastructure to provide the support and equipment needed for a spill. Administration officials themselves have expressed concerns about spill response in the Arctic. Admiral Robert Papp, the top officer at the U.S. Coast Guard, recently told Congress that if the Deepwater Horizon disaster was “to happen off the North Slope of Alaska, we’d have nothing. We’re starting from ground zero today.”

“The administration needs a realistic oil spill response and recovery plan before exposing this unique region with its fragile wildlife to an oil disaster we are unlikely to be able to control.”

The last public spill drill in the Arctic – that tested booms and skimmers and other conventional methods of oil spill cleanup in partial sea ice conditions in 2000 – was deemed a failure.

In addition, scientists, courts, communities, and, most recently, the U.S. Geological Survey, have identified basic missing scientific information that makes it impossible to fully and fairly evaluate Shell’s plans.

Since the BP Gulf tragedy in 2010, the federal government instituted a capping and containment requirement for well blowouts that requires containment be in place within 15 days.  Shell has not built or tested under Arctic conditions such a structure.

The Arctic's Chukchi Sea, courtesy USFWS

Alaska Native communities have existed in the Arctic for thousands of years, alongside myriad species of wildlife including polar bears, bowhead whales, walrus, ice seals and hundreds of species of birds. An oil spill in these Arctic waters would destroy vital habitat for this wildlife as well as the subsistence lifestyle that sustains the Inupiat people of Alaska’s Arctic coast.

Defenders’ president and CEO Jamie Rappaport Clark said, “America’s Arctic Ocean is a pristine and fragile environment. Its importance to the survival of polar bears, bowhead whales and other marine life is too great to hand over to Big Oil given the inadequate assurances of safety. The administration needs a realistic oil spill response and recovery plan before exposing this unique region with its fragile wildlife to an oil disaster we are unlikely to be able to control.”

Read the full release and see what other groups are saying about the rubber stamped approval. 

BREAKING: Ignoring the lessons of the BP Gulf oil disaster, the Obama administration plans to go forward with the sale of over 18 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling. 

ATLANTA, GA— The federal government ignored the impact of BP’s 200 million gallon oil spill in its assessment of risks and precautions for the Gulf of Mexico before the first new lease sale since the Deepwater Horizon disaster, according to a lawsuit filed today in D.C. federal court by conservation groups. In deciding to proceed with Lease Sale 218 on December 14, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management dismissed the lessons learned during the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster from its assessment of oil spill risk for the Gulf of Mexico, the possible size of an oil spill, and resulting damage – all considerations that could help prevent or mitigate a future spill.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the complaint today on behalf of Oceana, Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Center for Biological Diversity in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the BOEM’s decision to accept bids from oil and gas companies for new deep and shallow water leases in the Gulf of Mexico as part of Lease Sale 218.

Defenders attorney Sierra Weaver said, “Failing to fully analyze the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster and the potential of future spills before moving forward with drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is asking for another drilling catastrophe. If the government isn’t going to act in the interests of the region’s wildlife, natural habitats and coastal communities, we will.”

READ THE FULL RELEASE:  See what other groups are saying about the Obama administration’s decision to continue to allow shallow and deepwater drilling in the Gulf. 

Bowhead whales

These Arctic heavyweights use their massive bow-shaped heads to crash through sea ice—and they also smash a couple of records. Weighing in at up to 60 tons, bowhead whales hold the record for the biggest mouth of any living animal and they have the densest blubber, measuring up to 2-feet thick.

In a whale’s world it’s a bonus to be big, and that means bowheads have few natural predators. Even so, by the early 20th century, whalers had nearly pushed the population into the abyss, relentlessly hunting bowheads for their bones and blubber—key ingredients in household products of the day like corsets and oil.

Today many countries including the United States have strict laws prohibiting commercial whaling, but threats persist. Scientists say that new plans to drill for oil off Alaska’s northern coast could harm these graceful goliaths. If they’re right, being “hardheaded” may not be enough for bowheads to hang on.

Read more in the latest issue of Defenders.

The Arctic's Chukchi Sea. Photo courtesy USFWS

WASHINGTON (November 8, 2011) – The Obama administration today announced its Proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017. The plan schedules 15 potential lease sales for the five year period – 12 in the Gulf of Mexico and three off the coast of Alaska.

The following is a statement from Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO for Defenders of Wildlife:

“The Obama administration made the wise decision to protect vast tracts of the country’s oceans from oil and gas exploration. However, the inclusion of the Arctic Ocean in the country’s five-year drilling plan is indefensible. From the extreme and unpredictable conditions of the region to the lack of a realistic spill response, the risks of a drilling disaster in the Arctic remain too high to authorize exploratory drilling. While the announcement proposes to address these threats by deferring drilling for a handful of years, the only way to protect this fragile marine environment from the threats posed by dangerous oil and gas exploration is to take it off the table altogether.

Drilling in the Arctic Ocean poses grave threats to America's vanishing polar bears. Photo courtesy USFWS

“Instead of enabling our country’s addiction to oil for five more years, the administration should strengthen its efforts to wean America off dirty fossil fuels, accelerating the transition to a clean energy future.”

Learn more:

See how offshore drilling threatens the Arctic’s fragile marine environment.

Shell may begin drilling in the Arctic’s Beaufort Sea as early as next summer. Read about the oil giant’s inadequate oil spill response plan and the threat it poses to bowhead whales and polar bears.

A year and a half since BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing 11 people and initiating the worst environmental disaster the country has ever seen, the oil company is headed back into the Gulf of Mexico. That’s right. On Wednesday, the federal government gave BP approval to launch its first deep-water drilling since the disaster.

According to the Houston Chronicle, under the permit issued by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the British oil giant has permission to begin drilling at its Kaskida field about 192 miles off the Louisiana coast. And not only do operations have the green light to begin immediately, but BP plans to drill the newly approved well in 6,034 feet of water – about 1,000 feet deeper than the Macondo well.

That wasn’t the oil giant’s only good news for the week. CNN Money said that on Monday, BP reported ”better-than-expected earnings” for this quarter, with profits nearly doubling from the same quarter last year, from $1.8 billion to $4.9 billion. The company’s net revenue increased by about 31% to $97.6 billion.

Recovery hasn’t come as easily to the Gulf, whose diverse wildlife and fragile habitats continue to feel the impacts of the toxic oil and chemical dispersants. Just today, researchers announced a potential tie between the BP oil disaster and the continued surge of dolphin deaths in the Gulf. A cluster of bacterial infections may be an indication of exposure to oil by the marine mammals, who have been dying in numbers far higher than normal.  The St. Petersburg Times reports that from March 2010 to last week, 580 bottlenose dolphins and sperm whales have died and washed ashore in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. The total for last year was 265.

That investigation is continuing, but one thing we do know for sure: as long as we continue to hand over our country’s treasured coasts and fragile waters to Big Oil, we can continue to expect tragedies like the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Because if 205 million gallons of oil spewing into Gulf waters isn’t enough to teach us better than that, what is?

Learn more:

See how dangerous offshore drilling threatens wildlife and natural habitats.