RDC NEWS DIGEST
RDC, CONSERVATION COMMUNITY OFFER AWARD
RDC and the Alaska Conservation Alliance have joined together to establish an award to honor organizations, individuals and/or businesses that create solutions and innovations that advance economic development and environmental stewardship.
The “Tileston Award” is in honor of two long-time Alaskans, Peg and Jules Tileston, who worked on seemingly different sides of conservation and development issues but who always agreed “that if it is in Alaska, it must be done right.”
The award will not be viewed as a ‘green’ award for industry or an ‘economic’ recognition for a conservation organization. It will be uniquely Alaskan, whose recipients are determined by board members from each organization.
Nominations for the 2008 Tileston Award will be accepted through March 31. For more information or an application, visit www.tilestonaward.com.
COMMENTS DUE ON YUKON FLATS LAND EXCHANGE
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge Land Exchange between the agency and Doyon Limited. Beginning this month and continuing into March, public hearings will be held in a number of Interior Alaska villages, as well as Anchorage and Fairbanks. Written comments are due by March 25.
Both Doyon and RDC are supporting the Proposed Action Alternative which would require the Native corporation to turn over 150,000 acres rich in fish and game resources to the agency. Doyon would receive oil and gas rights to 200,000 acres of lower-quality habitat with high oil and gas potential, but would have surface rights to less then 110,000 acres.
Significant quantities of oil and gas may exist beneath the refuge. A recent private sector report estimates recoverable resources of as much as 1 billion barrels of oil and 15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The exchange would allow both Doyon and the agency to consolidate their holdings in the refuge. With 2 million acres, Doyon is the largest private land owner in the 11-million-acre refuge.
GROUPS SUE TO BLOCK DEVELOPMENT IN NPR-A
Three environmental groups are suing the federal government to block oil development in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve in the name of the yellow-billed loon, a bird that breeds in tundra wetlands in Alaska, Canada and Russia. The groups claim the loon is threatened by oil development in the energy reserve and that if it is to survive in a warming Arctic, its habitat should not be open to oil and gas development.
The Center for Biological Diversity is leading the effort to list the loon under the Endangered Species Act. The same group has also petitioned the federal government to list the polar bear.
MORE BELUGA WHALES IN COOK INLET
NOAA Fisheries Service biologists estimate a beluga whale population of 375 in Cook Inlet, according to data collected during their annual survey last summer. This population estimate is the largest since 2001, increasing from 302 in 2006.
Cook Inlet beluga whales were listed as depleted in 2000 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Since then, subsistence hunting, believed to be the main cause behind the whale’s steep population decline in the last decade, has been curtailed. Last year NOAA Fisheries Service proposed listing the Cook Inlet population under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). A final determination is due this spring.
RDC, the State of Alaska and local governments have opposed an ESA listing, believing the whales are now in recovery mode, and noting they are protected under current laws, regulations and agreements.
RDC ACTION ALERT: TULSEQUAH CHIEF MINE
The Alaska Coastal Management Program is seeking public comments on the consistency of the Tulsequah Chief Mine Project proposal to use Alaskan waterways to transport materials from British Columbia to Juneau. Comment deadline is February 21.
TRANSCANADA ADVANCE IN AGIA PROCESS
Governor Sarah Palin announced last month her administration has finished its review of the five AGIA applications and that TransCanada has satisfied all of the mandatory requirements set out in law.
The company’s application is now under evaluation to determine whether it will merit issuance of the exclusive AGIA license. The State is now soliciting public comments to help it evaluate the application and make that determination. The companies which had applied under AGIA to develop and build a natural gas pipeline to transport North Slope gas to market were: AEnergia LLC, the Alaska Gasline Port Authority, the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority, Little Susitna Construction Company (Sinopec) and TransCanada.
ConocoPhillips submitted an ‘alternative’ proposal outside the AGIA process, but that plan was rejected. While TransCanada’s application was deemed complete, the administration determined that the other applicants did not meet the requirements of AGIA.
Public comment will close March 6. If the Palin administration determines TransCanada’s proposal merits issuance of the AGIA license, it will forward the application to the Legislature for approval.
Meanwhile, ConocoPhillips says its proposal merits consideration and it has taken its plan to Alaskans through a major media campaign. The company is seeking new discussions on the plan with the administration.
