Alaska:Exxon Anniversary/Offshore Leases

[The.Greenbase@gb.greenpeace.org]

>> ALASKANS COMMEMORATE EXXON VALDEZ OIL SPILL AND 


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                    GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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>> ALASKANS COMMEMORATE EXXON VALDEZ OIL SPILL AND 
PROTEST OFFSHORE OIL LEASE SCHEDULED FOR SPILL-AFFECTED AREA  
 
ANCHORANGE, Alaska March 24, 1995 (GP) March 24, 1995 marks the
sixth anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  Protesters from
around Cook Inlet are demonstrating outside the Minerals
Management Service (MMS) building in Anchorage today to stop a
two million acre offshore oil and gas lease sale scheduled for
Lower Cook Inlet and Shelikof Strait, Lease Sale 149.  The lease
sale encompasses an area still recovering from the long-term
environmental damage and human suffering caused by the Exxon
Valdez oil spill.
 
     Cook Inlet residents want to deliver a message to MMS that
developing offshore oil and gas in Lower Cook Inlet/Shelikof
Strait is inconsistent with the restoration mandate of the Exxon
Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.  
 
     Participants in the protest are holding a press conference
at 1 pm at the Minerals Management Service (949 E. 36th, corner
of 36th and New Seward Hwy.).  The demonstration begins at 11:30
am.  Citizens from the Homer area, representing the 400 people
who expressed their opposition to Lower Cook Inlet/Shelikof
Strait Lease Sale 149, will present their views to Judith
Gottlieb, MMS Regional Director at 1:30 pm.  MMS is accepting
comments on the lease sale until April 19, 1995.
 
     Homer resident Michael O'Meara said:  "The same government
agencies and multi-national corporations responsible for 30 years
of chronic pollution in Upper Cook Inlet and the Exxon Valdez oil
spill are now asking that we entrust them with Lower Cook Inlet. 
This is not acceptable."
 
     Linda Feiler, an Anchor Point small business owner, said: 
"Our communities depend on clean water and healthy fisheries for
a sustainable economy.  We are drawing a line in the ocean and
telling MMS that oil development will not be allowed here."    
     "Lease Sale 149 includes or borders five national wildlife
refuges, four national parks, and many state-designated critical
habitat areas.  It would be a national security risk to allow oil
development in an area that supports the ecological diversity
represented here.  This area is too valuable for its subsistence
and commercial fisheries to risk for a meagre two weeks worth of
oil," said Joel Cooper, a Homer biologist.   
 
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Contact:  Pamela Miller, Greenpeace, 277-8234
          Michael O'Meara, Alaskans for Clean Water, 277-8234