|
Latest News Greenpeace, Inupiat Eskimos launch court challenge against BP Amoco's Arctic oil drilling
ANCHORAGE March 30, 2000 - To protect the earth's climate from the production and burning of fossil fuels, and to defend Inupiat subsistence culture from environmental threats, Greenpeace and Inupiat Eskimos filed opening legal briefs in today in a court action against BP Amoco's Northstar offshore oil project, now under construction on the frozen Arctic Ocean. The case, filed in San Franciscso's Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, challenges the federal government for permitting the project despite the fact it lacks an adequate oil spill plan. The court case is the latest in a series of challenges to BP Amoco's Arctic drilling plans. For the past month Greenpeace has maintained a base camp on the frozen ice to monitor the Northstar's massive construction site, just a short distance away. And on April 13th at the company's annual general meeting in London shareholders will vote on a resolution that calls on BP Amoco to switch away from Arctic oil drilling and instead concentrate investments in solar power. Specifically, the papers filed today charge that in approving the project, the federal Mineral Management Service and other federal agencies violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Specific concerns focus on a defective oil spill response plan and absence of a site-specific oil spill trajectory analysis, which would assess where oil spilled from the pipeline or from the facility itself would spread. The case is expected to he heard by a federal court in mid-summer. "The Arctic Ocean is our garden, and we cannot afford to have it contaminated by oil spills and industrialization. This lawsuit is about protecting our subsistence resources and culture for future generations," said Bill Tegoseak, an Inupiat Eskimo who resides in Barrow, Alaska. "The Inupiat people have relied on the Arctic ocean for sustenance for thousands of years. Sunakkiniagniq Inuuniaqusiqput. Our life is our subsistence." In a related action, on Tuesday, March 28, Greenpeace filed an appeal with the Alaska Superior Court in Anchorage against the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. The appeal alleges the illegal use of freshwater in the construction of iceroads for the Northstar Project. In just two years of ice-road construction, BP has used close to the entire amount of water the Final Environmental Impact Statement predicted would be used for the entire 15-year lifetime of the project. "BP Amoco, in collaboration with federal and state authorities, are trampling a wide range of environmental safeguards to get Northstar up and running," said Dan Ritzman, Greenpeace climate change campaigner in Anchorage. "They cannot be allowed to ignore the laws designed to protect the people and the ecology of Alaska's North Slope." Earlier this week, the District Court in Barrow changed the bail conditions imposed on the four Greenpeace members whom BP Amoco had State Police arrest for allegedly breaching the 'no trespass' zone around the Northstar site. Base leader Henk Haazen was allowed to return to Camp Sirius, but photographer Steve Morgan and activist Richard Watson were required to post substantial extra bail in order to return home prior to trial, currently scheduled for late May. Greenpeace USA campaigner Dan Ritzman was allowed to travel out of state on a case by case basis. |
Recent News Releases 20 March 2000 10 March 2000 6 March 2000 1 March 2000 28 February 2000 2 February 2000 26 January 2000 15 November 1999: 4 November 1999 21 October 1999 5 August 1999 |
