WP: Alaskan Reserve Drilling Plan Draws Lawsuit [View All]

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Alaskan Reserve Drilling Plan Draws Lawsuit

By Tom Doggett
Reuters
Wednesday, February 18, 2004; Page A17


Environmental groups sued yesterday to block the Bush administration from opening millions more acres in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling.

The Interior Department last month finalized a plan to make the vast majority of an 8.8 million-acre portion in the northwest area of the reserve available for drilling.

However, a coalition of groups -- including the National Audubon Society, Wilderness Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, Alaska Wilderness League and Sierra Club -- filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Alaska to stop the drilling.

The groups said the administration ignored several federal laws intended to protect key wildlife areas in the reserve for polar bears, caribou, wolves, grizzly bears and migrating birds, and did not adequately study the likely harm that drilling will cause.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49018-2004Feb17.html