Alaska's Teshekpuk Lake gains reprieve

Ruling finds Interior Department shortchanged environmental protection; lease sale postponed

The U.S. District Court for Alaska on Sep. 25 issued a strongly worded decision that could save the internationally significant wildlife habitat around Teshekpuk Lake in the Northeast Planning Area of the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska. The court found the government's environmental analysis to violate federal environmental laws. The ruling strikes down the Interior Department's leasing plan for the area, and prohibits a planned sale of oil and gas leases on more than 400,000 acres around the lake. The sale was to have taken place Sep. 27.

Judge James Singleton Jr. found that the department's Bureau of Land Management failed to consider the cumulative environmental impact of widespread oil and gas drilling in the Reserve.

Thanks to all of you who have written letters opposing the lease sale.

For more information, see www.sierraclub.org/arctic/western