Thursday, February 7, 2019: A Department of the Interior official has confirmed that there will be no 3-D seismic exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this winter, which would have brought a massive amount of industrial activity into a remote and fragile part of the Alaska wilderness. The seismic survey applicant SAExploration and its financial backers, Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation and Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, were unable to obtain necessary permits under the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act in time to move forward with the proposal this winter. The delay in issuing the needed permits was due in large part to the efforts of the Sierra Club Environmental Law Program, led by Karimah Schoenhut, and its allies, who provided the Department with expert analysis demonstrating that seismic exploration within the Refuge would likely result in population-level impacts to denning polar bears. While the Department intends to move forward with an oil leases in the Refuge, the lack of seismic data leaves oil companies with much less information on drilling prospects.
Read the official Sierra Club press release here.