Kristen Monsell, Center for Biological Diversity, kmonsell@biologicaldiversity.org
Shannon Van Hoesen, Sierra Club, shannon.vanhoesen@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC — The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club sued the federal government today for failing to properly evaluate harms from the Alaska LNG project to several threatened and endangered species.
Biological opinions issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service violate the Endangered Species Act by not fully examining and mitigating the project’s harms to polar bears, Cook Inlet beluga whales and North Pacific right whales, today’s lawsuit says.
“I’m outraged by how thoroughly federal agencies ignored the many ways this LNG project is likely to harm endangered whales and polar bears,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Our climate can’t take more fossil fuel extraction and neither can these desperately imperiled animals. They’ll suffer more habitat destruction and other harms from this project. Alaska’s wildlife needs officials to really think through these kinds of risks, but the federal government decided to duck its legal obligations here and leave endangered species in the lurch.”
The Alaska LNG project would consist of several compressor stations, liquefaction facilities, a marine terminal, and an 807-mile pipeline bisecting most of the state of Alaska. The project would enable the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation to ship about 20 million metric tons of gas from Alaska’s Arctic abroad every year.
Burning that amount of gas could result in more than 50 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions annually. That’s almost the same global warming impact as building 13 coal-fired power plants.
“The rubber-stamp approval of the Alaska LNG project was reckless in many ways,” said Sierra Club Alaska Chapter Director Andrea Feniger. “The project will be devastating to vulnerable wildlife already struggling to face the catastrophic impacts of climate change. The agencies responsible for assessing the impacts on whales, polar bears, and other species neglected to take proper care in evaluating the full scope of harm Alaska LNG will cause. We’ve only got one shot to protect the climate and critical ecosystems that these endangered animals rely upon. The federal government must take an honest look at the real outcomes of expanded gas extraction and transport across the landscape and waterways of Alaska.”
The pipeline would connect drilling operations on the North Slope to an export terminal on Cook Inlet and bring tanker ships through the habitat of endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales and North Pacific right whales. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission estimates the project would increase large vessel traffic in the inlet by up to nearly 75%.
Cook Inlet beluga whales are critically endangered. The population has declined more than 75% since 1970, and scientists believe their recovery is hindered by noise pollution and the cumulative harm of multiple, human-caused stressors.
The eastern North Pacific right whale population ranges from the Bering Sea to Baja California and is down to only about 30 individuals. With few reproducing females, the population is at extreme risk of imminent extinction.
Climate change is warming the Arctic four times faster than the rest of the planet. Eight young Alaskans have filed a lawsuit against the state of Alaska claiming that the LNG project violates their rights by further hastening climate change and contributing to negative effects on their lives.
If warming continues at current rates, two-thirds of the world's polar bears could be extinct by 2050 because of the loss of their Arctic sea-ice habitat.
Today’s lawsuit was filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The groups are seeking to have the inadequate biological opinions invalidated and thrown out by the court.
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About the Center for Biological Diversity
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.